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CERN
Flusser
Lord's Bridge
Lightning Field

Ryle telescope array, August 2005
[Photograph | Tim O'Riley] [click on the image to progress]

One of my plans at Lord's Bridge was to make a time-lapse film of the Ryle telescope array over 24 hours. As the site is located in the middle of the Cambridgeshire countryside, it was necessary to set up a tent near the telescopes. The following text is distilled from notes made during my overnight stay on 31st August 2005:

I arrived from London at around eight o’clock in the morning and got to work soon after. The weather was fabulous. It was the hottest day of the year, I think, and although it was quite hazy, there was a clear and deep blue sky until around three o’clock. I positioned the cameras at the very end of the Ryle telescope array, located on the old railway line that runs almost due west from Cambridge. Wandering about the site, I came across various structures and pieces of equipment, some functioning, others left to be reclaimed by the Cambridgeshire undergrowth. I liked the fact that these were dotted about the site, in various states of repair or visibility. They provided a tangible reminder of past endeavours and an apt backdrop to their current, state-of-the-art counterparts.

Afterwards I went back to the Ryle and spent the afternoon reading, daydreaming and mulling over the massive dishes catching waves of energy - radio waves at a frequency of 15GHz - that were emitted from unimaginably distant sources long ago. Later in the afternoon, the clouds began to move in from the south west and by evening, they appeared to have settled in for good. I had been hoping for a clear night but this seemed increasingly unlikely. As it grew dark, I still managed to catch a glimpse of the odd star or two. Around eight o’clock, I started to think about putting up the tent.