Synopses & Reviews
In this volume the creator and director of Jodrell Bank, the world's largest radio telescope, tells the fascinating story behind the building of this huge telescope. The building of the telescope was fraught with mishaps and frustration--financial, political, and otherwise; yet, through his perseverance, Sir Bernard Lovell made its creation a reality. His story, drawn largely from personal diaries, documents the complex conflicts among scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians which arose out of this monumental endeavor.
Review
The story of the emergence of Jodrell Bank as a scientific establishment and the development of a new technique for studying the universe--radio astronomy--told by the man without whose determination, energy and faith the project would not have succeeded.The Good Book Guide
Synopsis
In this volume the creator and director of Jodrell Bank, the world's largest radio telescope, tells the fascinating story behind the building of this huge telescope. Though the telescope is popularly known for tracking and communicating with man-made satellites, its prime function is the study of the universe by means of radio waves emitted by distatant stars. The radiation received from meteors, the moon, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way offers new information daily about the origins of life on this planet and the possibilities of life on other worlds. The building of the telescope was fraught with mishaps and frustrations-financial, political, and otherwise; yet, through his perseverance, Sir Bernard Lovell made its creation a reality. His story, drawn largely from personal diaries, documents the complex conflicts among scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians which arose out of this monumental endeavor.
Synopsis
In this volume the creator and director of Jodrell Bank, the world's largest radio telescope, tells the fascinating story behind the building of this huge telescope. The building of the telescope was fraught with mishaps and frustration--financial, political, and otherwise; yet, through his perseverance, Sir Bernard Lovell made its creation a reality.
Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.
About the Author
BERNARD LOVELL is the former Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester as well as Director of the Experimental Station at the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England.
Table of Contents
Convergence
The Mobius Strip
Introduction to the Revised and Updated Edition
Forewords
Introduction
The Origins of Jodrell Bank
Growth
The Fairground
The First Large Aerials
Radio Astronomy
Dreams
A New Start
Lobbying
Land Troubles
The Design of the Telescope
The Foundations of the Telescope
The First Financial Crisis
Railway Tracks and Power
Telescope Control System and the Control Building
The Central Pivot and the Azimuth Bogies
The Driving Motors
The Crisis of 1954
The Autumn of 1954
Simon of Wythenshawe
The Telescope Rises
A Quarter of a Million Pounds in Debt
1955 on the Site--A Beginning with the Bowl
Appeal and Inquiry
1956 and the Site Committee
Finality on the Driving System
The Treasury and the Public Accounts Committee
The Telescope Moves
Public Relations--Authorities
Public Relations--The Press
The Sputnik--October 1957
The Search for a Financial Solution
Project Able--The American Moon Rocket
The Final Appeal
13 September 1959, A Soviet Rocket Hits the Moon
Pioneer V--The End of Our Debt
Jodrell Bank and the University
Envoi--Into the Depths of Space
Thirty Years on
The Mark IA Telescope
MERLIN-and the Future