I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish.
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@slowe Thank you for this great thread and for taking the time to add all the photos!
@Hicsumus It still feels like not that long ago but I realise it is 24 years since I took these so they are basically historic photos now
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It was very special to spend several years working next to this huge, iconic, working, radio telescope. A telescope featured in HHGTTG ("At Jodrell Bank, someone decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea") and Doctor Who (being the Pharos Project).
@slowe these are awesome photos !
I seem to recall the hanging lab was removed from the structure but can't recall exactly when.
I think someone said its still about on site some place though -
I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe vale Sam Neill
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Were you using Lovell's old bat?
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Non-euclidean cricket. As if the game wasn't weird enough already.
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Love that movie, one of my top 10. We visited Parkes just a few weeks ago. An astronomer who worked as a consultant on the movie gave us a back scenes tour. A definite highlight of our trip to Australia.
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Amazing to me that I saw "Lovell Telescope" and immediately thought "Jodrell Bank, right?" Radio telescopes were part of my growing up, and Lovell was part of that. I'm about two years older than it, I could use a resurface, too!
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@Hicsumus It still feels like not that long ago but I realise it is 24 years since I took these so they are basically historic photos now
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
That's such a great photo of what is a singular thing to have experienced.
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@slowe these are awesome photos !
I seem to recall the hanging lab was removed from the structure but can't recall exactly when.
I think someone said its still about on site some place though@mcrmonkey @slowe Really? That’s a shame - I think it got used as an initiation ritual for first-timers on inspections!
Back in July ‘94…
‘$first_timer, go and check the inside!’
Me: *steps on the metal platform of the lab*
*entire platform swivels ten degrees* - it’s on a gimbal and the brake wasn’t on.
Me: *swears, holds onto safety fence, looks at the concrete many metres below*
Light dawns.
I turn and look at the old hands, who are watching the new boy and grinning.
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@slowe Were you using Lovell's old bat?
@khleedril @slowe Lovell was the nicest genius I’ve ever met. When I was (briefly) at Jodrell in ‘94, he’d retired a few years prior, his wife had died the year before, and so he’d come into Jodrell most days and sit in the common room, chat with his former students (now running the lab), drink tea, and listen to Test Match Special.
I still have a newspaper article he cut out and kept for me because he thought I’d like it.
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You might be thinking that the bowl you could see there was the underside of the shiny white surface. But it is actually the underside of the original surface from 1957. When they upgraded the telescope in the 1970s they put a new surface, with a different curvature, above the old surface. The result is a big cavern between the "old" and "new" surfaces. Apologies for the blurry shot - blame my 2002 digital camera.
@slowe it’s got a contact lens?!
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@slowe Were you using Lovell's old bat?
@khleedril Unfortunately not. Another student had brought one along so we could do this.
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Loved all these photos! I love Jodrell Bank and encourage anyone to go visit. In 2019 I was at Bluedot Festival there, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. It was replayed in real time on the dish! It was incredibly cool to be stood in the middle of the night looking up at that iconic structure. They also did history and science talks about it which were fantastic.
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You might be thinking that the bowl you could see there was the underside of the shiny white surface. But it is actually the underside of the original surface from 1957. When they upgraded the telescope in the 1970s they put a new surface, with a different curvature, above the old surface. The result is a big cavern between the "old" and "new" surfaces. Apologies for the blurry shot - blame my 2002 digital camera.
@slowe@mastodon.me.uk maybe I’m just a nostalgic Gen Z but that’s insanely cool and the old digital camera look makes it ten times better
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe HOW’S THAT!!!?🧐
I happen to remember that cry in cricket when I was young.
Very nice photo’s of an amazing experience! -
@mcrmonkey @slowe Really? That’s a shame - I think it got used as an initiation ritual for first-timers on inspections!
Back in July ‘94…
‘$first_timer, go and check the inside!’
Me: *steps on the metal platform of the lab*
*entire platform swivels ten degrees* - it’s on a gimbal and the brake wasn’t on.
Me: *swears, holds onto safety fence, looks at the concrete many metres below*
Light dawns.
I turn and look at the old hands, who are watching the new boy and grinning.
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@mcrmonkey @slowe Hah!
Back in the Old Days, the observer would go up there for the observing shift and spend eight hours in a rather precarious metal garden shed hanging below the original surface of the Mk. 1.
(I can only assume there was some sort of porta-potty in a corner.)
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I once played a very brief game of cricket in the Lovell Telescope (after a resurface but before it got properly tuned) because we wanted to recreate a scene from The Dish. We used a tennis ball to avoid damage. The Chief Engineer was wicket keeper. I'm bowling.
@slowe Stacked leg-side field, I'm guessing you were bowling Bodyline.
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It was very special to spend several years working next to this huge, iconic, working, radio telescope. A telescope featured in HHGTTG ("At Jodrell Bank, someone decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea") and Doctor Who (being the Pharos Project).
@slowe haha when you're used to dealing with optical telescopes, then you realise that at radio frequencies tenth of a wave optics won't be affected by footprints on the mirror
