During our holiday in Derbyshire in April we ventured across into Cheshire to visit Jodrell Bank, home to the third largest steerable space telescope in the world. I’ve driven past the site before and was eager to see this astonishing piece on engineering at closer quarters.
The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell and the largest of the three telescopes on site is named in his honour. It’s so powerful that if someone were to make a mobile phone call from Mars it would be able to pick up the signal! As a result, anyone who comes on site is asked to switch off their phone (or put it in airplane mode) as the signals from it could disrupt the telescope’s sensitive work. This made for a very quiet day and it was refreshing to see people going about without their eyes glued to their phone screens!
The visitor centre on site, which has a cinema and a large space explaining the telescope’s history and the work done at Jodrell Bank was also very striking. It’s a modern, circular building and this slit in the side lines up with the sun perfectly on the longest day of the year.
I spent quite a while capturing the lines and light sculpting the interior….
Click on any image to see it enlarged.
Photos taken 21 April 2024