The Museum of… Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre

The Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Cheshire is the visitor facility for Jodrell Bank, one of the largest radio observatories in the world. It is part of the University of Manchester’s astrophysics department.

“We think of it as the home of the heritage of modern astronomy,” says its astrophysicist director Teresa Anderson.

The telescope building is a Grade I-listed structure and the telescope itself has a 76-metre diameter dish, which can pick up radio signals from a distance of 13 billion light years, from “the very dawn of the universe”, according to Anderson.

“The telescope is as high as the Houses of Parliament and dominates the Cheshire plain,” says Lorna Harper, the head of business performance at the centre.

2011. The main radio telescope, known as the Lovell telescope, began operating in 1957 and was the only piece of technology at the time capable of tracking the Sputnik launch and its carrier rocket. The telescope played an important part in monitoring the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. It also tracked Nasa’s Apollo launches.

The discovery centre has a collection of telescopes, of which the Lovell, named after the late English physicist and radio astronomer Bernard Lovell, is the most important.

There are also the Galaxy Gardens, landscaped around an astronomical theme, and two galleries where visitors can experiment with sound waves and find out about planets, stars and black holes.

The centre’s Planet Pavilion has a specially commissioned brass-geared orrery (a working model of the solar system), which Harper says is “absolutely beautiful”.

A 21-strong team staffs the discovery centre.

On the wider site, there are many scientists and researchers at the observatory.

Some members of staff were employed when Jodrell Bank was used as an early warning system and they are subject to the Official Secrets Act.

“They still won’t speak about what they did,” Anderson says. The centre’s science explainers have to be knowledgeable. They are often asked questions about aliens and black holes.

Peak-time adult admission is £7.

Around 125,000 visitors a year, plus another 25,000 who attend the Jodrell Bank Live festivals. About 16,000 schoolchildren also visit each year.

The centre has a strong education programme that links to school key stages. “It’s our mission to inspire the scientists of the future,” Anderson says.

“We were one of the venues chosen to host the Olympic torch relay in 2012,” Harper says. “Local comedian John Bishop turned up to take the torch to the top of the telescope’s tower. But unfortunately he got stuck in the lift.

“He and the torch were stuck in it for five minutes, which felt like an eternity. We were terrified that the national news media would notice.”

“Listening to our visitors,” Harper says.

The centre hosts live music and other events to attract people. Last month it held Abandon Normal Devices, a festival of cinema, digital culture and art, which, from next year, will become a mobile event, visiting other sites.

The centre is developing a management plan and a collections policy, with support from the Science Museum. Jodrell Bank is on the UK shortlist to become a Unesco World Heritage Site, so there is still a lot of paperwork to be done. “It’s an ongoing process,” Harper says.

www.jodrellbank.net