Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astronomer at the university, to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in the Second World War. It has since played an important role in the research of meteoroids, quasars, pulsars, masers, and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age.
Jodrell Bank Observatory
Initial observations at Jodrell Bank in 1945
The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank
The Mark II radio telescope
A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by astronomical objects, just as optical telescopes are the main observing instrument used in traditional optical astronomy which studies the light wave portion of the spectrum coming from astronomical objects. Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can be used in the daytime as well as at night.
The 64-meter radio telescope at Parkes Observatory as seen in 1969, when it was used to receive live televised video from Apollo 11
Antenna of UTR-2 low frequency radio telescope, Kharkiv region, Ukraine. Consists of an array of 2040 cage dipole elements.
Full-size replica of the first radio telescope, Jansky's dipole array of 1932, preserved at the US Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.
Ooty radio telescope, a 326.5 MHz dipole array in Ooty, India