Turning the Wheels That Scan the Skies

CHANGING a car wheel when you have a puncture can be tricky, but putting a new one on a 3,000-ton telescope would be beyond most of us.

So when a steel wheel cracked on the Jodrell Bank Observatory, in Cheshire, engineers needed more than just a jack and a brace to replace it.

Rotherham-based firm Newburgh Engineering was called in to specially manufacture a new wheel which is now in place on the famous observatory.

Jodrell Bank engineer, Chris Scott, said: “The telescope has

64 wheels, each weighing over one ton, so I’m glad to say this

is not a job we have to do

every week.”

It is only the second wheel that has needed changing since the telescope was completed, in 1957, and the observatory is hoping it lasts as long as the old one.

Jodrell Bank astronomer, Dr Richard Davis, said: “It’s wonderful to see the telescope back in operation after its enforced lay-off these last

few weeks.

“Although it’s 50 years old, it is actually more capable than ever and plays a significant role in world astronomy as the third- largest steerable telescope and the heart of the UK’s national radio astronomy facility.”

For the past 50 years, the giant Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, a Grade I listed building, has been a familiar sight of the Cheshire landscape.

It is named after Sir Bernard Lovell, 94, who came up with the idea for the telescope and oversaw its construction. Its first act was to track the rocket that carried Sputnik I into space in October 1957.

Since then, it has been quietly probing the depths of space and remains one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world.

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