The death of radio astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell The Lovell
Telescope at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, UK on 12 May 1976. Picture
Nick Lomb Sir Bernard Lovell, the man forever associated with
the giant 250 foot (76-metre) radio telescope near Manchester
UK, has died on 6 August 2012 at the age of 98. At his death he
was Emeritus Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of
Manchester. Born in 1913, Sir Bernard studied at the University
of Bristol, but moved in 1936 to the University of Manchester.
During the Second World War he did important radar work. After
the war he wanted to use his knowledge of radar and surplus
equipment to study the trails left behind by cosmic rays. In
December 1945 he set up two trailers full of radar apparatus
plus a diesel generator in a field in the Cheshire countryside
where the university happened to have a botanical outstation. He
did receive echoes, but instead of receiving them from cosmic
rays they were from the trails left behind by meteors.
Henceforth meteors became the ma