Organization / Publicationfor The Independent Magazine
CategoryScience & Technology stories
Prize2nd prize
Date06-06-2000
CountryUnited Kingdom
PlaceCheshire
CaptionRadio telescopes are some of the most sensitive scientific instruments known to man, yet they are also among the largest. The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Obsevatory in northern England is the oldest such telescope in the world, and the place where radio astronomy was invented. Some 3,500 tons of steel support a dish 76m in diameter, making an instrument that is more powerful than the famous Hubble telescope. Without the annual application of 5,200 liters of weatherproof paint, the telescope on the exposed Cheshire Plain would rust away. Scaffolding cannot be used, as the telescope remains operative at night after daytime maintenance work. Instead, specially trained painters use ropes and harnesses to do the job.
