Related content

FOR MOST people, when a tyre goes all it takes is a jack, a spanner and a bit of elbow grease to get you back on the road.

But popping a spare onto an 89-metre telescope, whose 64 steel tyres weigh a tonne each and can take a few months to fit, is a wheel-y hard task.

So when one of the tyres that allow the 57-year-old Lovell Telescope at Lower Withington landmark Jodrell Bank to revolve cracked, engineers at the observatory knew they couldn’t call out the AA.

Scientists from Manchester University avoided the local garage and had a whole new wheel, weighing one tonne – a normal car tyre weighs in at 11kg – specially manufactured by Newburgh Engineering in Rotherham.

The tyre took three weeks to arrive and the telescope was jacked up for a few months, which is a little longer than a motorist’s usual hour at the roadside, but thankfully the 3,200-tonne observatory was still operational for star gazing during that time.

Jodrell Bank engineer Chris Scott, who was in charge of overseeing the astronomical pit stop, said: "The telescope has 64 wheels, each weighing over one tonne, so I’m glad to say this is not a job we have to do every week."

In the observatory’s 50-year history only one wheel has had to be changed before, which will send most car drivers green with envy, and that was only one year ago.

Dr Richard Davis, the Jodrell Bank astronomer responsible for looking after developments of the Lovell Telescope, said: "It’s wonderful to see the telescope back in operation after its enforced lay-off these last few weeks.

"Although it’s 50 years old, it is actually more capable than ever and plays a significant role in world astronomy as the third-largest steerable telescope and the heart of the UK’s national radio astronomy facility."

For over 50 years the giant Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, a Grade I listed building, has been a familiar feature of the Cheshire landscape and an internationally renowned landmark in the world of astronomy.

It is named after Sir Bernard Lovell, 94, who originally conceived the idea for the telescope and oversaw its construction.

Its first act was to track the rocket that carried Sputnik I into space on October 4, 1957.

Ever since, it has been quietly probing the depths of space, and remains one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world, spending most of its time investigating cosmic phenomena.