Editing Jodrell Bank Observatory (section)

== Lovell Telescope ==
[[Image:Lovell Telescope 1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The [[Lovell Telescope]] at Jodrell Bank]]
{{main|Lovell Telescope}}

The "Mark I" telescope, now known as the Lovell Telescope, was the world's largest steerable dish radio telescope, {{convert|76.2|m|ft}} in diameter, when it was constructed in 1957;<ref>
{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_2566000/2566961.stm | title=On This Day—14 March 1960: Radio telescope makes space history | work=BBC News | access-date=2007-05-11 | date=14 March 1960}}</ref> it is now the third largest, after the [[Green Bank Telescope|Green Bank telescope]] in [[West Virginia]] and the [[Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope|Effelsberg telescope]] in Germany.<ref name="spaceref_resurface">{{cite web | url=http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9732 | title=The Lovell Telescope presents a new face to the Universe | date=5 November 2002 | access-date=2007-05-11 | archive-date=10 June 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610051732/http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9732 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Part of the gun turret mechanisms from the [[First World War]] battleships {{HMS|Revenge|06|6}} and {{HMS|Royal Sovereign|05|6}} were reused in the telescope's motor system.<ref name="story_29">Lovell, ''The Story of Jodrell Bank'', p. 29</ref> The telescope became operational in mid-1957, in time for the launch of the Soviet Union's [[Sputnik 1]], the world's first artificial satellite. The telescope was the only one able to track Sputnik's [[booster rocket]] by radar;<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8059107.stm|title=Jodrell Bank's Cold War history|access-date=2009-07-13|date=20 May 2009|publisher=BBC News Channel}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The team that tracked Sputnik – and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-shropshire-41416087/the-team-that-tracked-sputnik-and-the-world-s-first-intercontinental-ballistic-missile|access-date=4 October 2017|work=BBC|date=4 October 2017}}</ref> first locating it just before midnight on 12 October 1957, eight days after its launch.<ref name="story_196">Lovell, ''The Story of Jodrell Bank'', p. 196</ref><ref name="astronomer_262">Lovell, ''Astronomer by Chance'', p. 262</ref>

In the following years, the telescope tracked various space probes. Between 11 March and 12 June 1960, it tracked the United States' [[NASA]]-launched [[Pioneer 5]] probe. The telescope sent commands to the probe, including those to separate it from its carrier rocket and turn on its more powerful transmitter when the probe was eight million miles away. It received data from the probe, the only telescope in the world capable of doing so.<ref>Lovell, ''The Story of Jodrell Bank'', p. xii, pp. 239–244<br />Lovell, ''Astronomer by Chance'', p. 272<br />{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894817,00.html | title=Voice in Space | magazine=Time Magazine | date=21 March 1960 | access-date=2007-04-09 | archive-date=1 April 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070401082712/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894817,00.html | url-status=dead }}<br />{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827621,00.html | title=Big Voice from Space | magazine=[[Time Magazine]] | date=23 May 1960 | access-date=2007-04-09 | archive-date=21 April 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090421175537/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827621,00.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> In February 1966, Jodrell Bank was asked by the Soviet Union to track its unmanned Moon lander [[Luna 9]] and recorded on its [[Fax|facsimile]] transmission of photographs from the Moon's surface. The photographs were sent to the British press and published before the Soviets made them public.<ref>Lovell, ''The Story of Jodrell Bank'', p. 250<br />{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_4063000/4063471.stm | title=On This Day—3 February 1966: Soviets land probe on Moon | work=[[BBC News]] | access-date=2007-04-09 | date=3 February 1966 }}<br />{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842468,00.html | title=The Lunar Landscape | magazine=[[Time Magazine]] | date=11 February 1966 | access-date=2007-04-07 | archive-date=20 February 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220194520/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842468,00.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1969, the Soviet Union's [[Luna 15]] was also tracked. A recording of the moment when Jodrell Bank's scientists observed the mission was released on 3 July 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/recording-tracks-russias-moon-gatecrash-attempt-1730851.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220609/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/recording-tracks-russias-moon-gatecrash-attempt-1730851.html |archive-date=9 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title= Recording tracks Russia's Moon gatecrash attempt|newspaper=The Independent|date=3 July 2009|access-date=2009-07-16 | location=London | first=Jonathan | last=Brown}}, includes link to recording with Lovell</ref>

With the support of Sir Bernard Lovell, the telescope tracked Russian satellites. Satellite and space probe observations were shared with the US Department of Defense satellite tracking research and development activity at [[Project Space Track]].

Tracking space probes only took a fraction of the Lovell telescope's observing time, and the remainder was used for scientific observations including using radar to measure the distance to the Moon and to Venus;<ref name="zenith_197">Lovell, ''Out of the Zenith'', pp. 197–198</ref><ref name="astronomer_277">Lovell, ''Astronomer by Chance'', pp. 277–280</ref> observations of astrophysical masers around [[star formation|star-forming regions]] and giant stars;<ref name="jbo_gas">{{cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/research/masers/introduction.html | title=Introduction to cosmic masers | date=28 January 2005 | publisher=Jodrell Bank Observatory | access-date=2007-06-01}}</ref> observations of pulsars (including the discovery of millisecond pulsars<ref name="jbo_stars">{{cite web | url=http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/tech/lovell/aunstar.html | title=JBO—Stars | publisher=Jodrell Bank Observatory | access-date=2007-06-01}}</ref> and the first pulsar in a globular cluster);<ref name="jbo_milestones">{{cite web | url=http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/history/milestones.html | title=Milestones | publisher=Jodrell Bank Observatory | access-date=2007-05-28 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028175102/http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/history/milestones.html | archive-date=28 October 2008}}</ref> and observations of quasars and gravitational lenses (including the detection of the first gravitational lens<ref name="astronomer_297">Lovell, ''Astronomer by Chance'', pp. 297–301</ref> and the first [[Einstein ring]]).<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/71518.stm | title=Astronomers see cosmic mirage | work=[[BBC News]] | date=1 April 1998 | access-date=2007-04-09}}</ref> The telescope has also been used for [[Search for extraterrestrial intelligence|SETI]] observations.<ref name="bbc_seti">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/52489.stm | title=Scientists listen intently for ET | work=[[BBC News]] | date=1 February 1998 | access-date=2007-04-09}}</ref>