Webcams

Our web cameras allow you to see the Jodrell Bank Observatory radio telescopes in action, tracking objects in space as the Earth rotates and they appear to move across the sky.

On some occasions the telescopes may be parked for engineering maintenance or if high winds are forecast.

Lovell telescope

The Lovell telescope, with its 76 metre diameter reflecting surface, has stood over the Cheshire plain since construction was completed in 1957.

Since then, the telescope has been upgraded several times and it remains one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world, spending most of its time investigating cosmic phenomena which were undreamed of when it was conceived.

It was given a Heritage Grade I listing in 1988.

Jodrell Mk 2

The Mark II telescope, completed in 1964, has a parabolic reflecting surface with an elliptical outline to increase the collecting area over a circular aperture.

It is approximately 25m in diameter and was the first telescope of any type in the world to be controlled by a digital computer.

In 1987 new aluminium panels were mounted on the original steel surface and have an RMS surface accuracy of around 1/3 mm.

In 2017 it was given a Heritage Grade I listing.

7m Telescope

Originally used at the Woomera Rocket Testing Range in Australia, the 7-metre telescope is now used by undergraduates on our degree courses.

They use it to study emission from neutral atomic hydrogen in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and to observe pulsars, which are rapidly rotating neutron stars.