The new 76-meter Lovell Telescope. Photo: Jodrell Bank Observatory

After many months of unseen work, the University of Manchester's giant Lovell Telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire is again scanning the skies with a brand new, pristine white, surface. After two summers of work, the installation and painting of the new galvanised steel surface has been completed so that the telescope now presents a new face to the world. This is a major milestone in a 2.5 million pound upgrade programme funded by a grant from the Government and the Wellcome Foundation.

With a much more accurate pointing system, installed as part of the upgrade, the telescope is now performing better than at any time in its 45-year life. Professor Andrew Lyne, Director of Jodrell Bank said that "he was delighted to have our flagship instrument back in use and looked forwards to the rejuvenated telescope keeping the observatory at the forefront of astronomical research for many years to come." Next summer will bring the final phase of the upgrade in which each of the 340 panels that make up the 76m diameter surface will be adjusted to make the whole surface follow the optimum parabolic shape to an accuracy of between 1 and 2 millimetres. When this final task is completed, the telescope will have its frequency range quadrupled so allowing a wide range of new science to be carried out.

Sir Bernard Lovell, first Director of the Observatory and instrumental in the building of the telescope, watched as the new surface was revealed. Sir Bernard said that "he had never expected the telescope to have an operational life of more that 15 years and was immensely pleased to see it still in use. It is truly magnificent." The new Lovell Telescope will be used to discover new distant pulsars, study the formation of stars in our own galaxy and seek out faint radio galaxies and quasars in the far reaches of the Universe.

The new 76-meter Lovell Telescope. Photo: Jodrell Bank Observatory

In addition to its use as a single telescope, the Lovell Telescope is a key element of the UK's MERLIN high-resolution radio-imaging National Facility. The upgrade will more than double the sensitivity of MERLIN and open up exciting new areas of astrophysical study producing images whose detail exceeds that of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The Lovell telescope is also regularly linked to telescopes in Europe and around the globe to make observations with the highest resolution in all astronomy. The upgraded telescope will also be able to play a significant role in the future expansion of these activities into space. However, as in the past, the most important and exciting discoveries by the telescope will be those which are totally unpredictable.

The University of Manchester's giant 76-metre (250ft) Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is probably the most famous working scientific instrument in the land and is widely regarded by the public as an icon of the very best achievements of British science and technology. For over 45 years, the telescope, still the third largest fully-steerable radio telescope in the world, has played a major role in astronomical research due to its large collecting area and great flexibility. Equipped with state-of-the-art receiver systems, the telescope is now 30 times more sensitive than when it was first built. In recent years it has played a leading role in many fields of astronomy, including the detection and study of a new population of pulsars and the discovery of the first gravitational lens. It is also currently participating in the most sensitive search ever for signals from extra-terrestrial intelligence.

The Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) is a 3750 million [pounds Sterling] partnership for the improvement of University research infrastructure between the Wellcome Trust, the Office of Science and Technology and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.