A working radio observatory
Jodrell Bank Observatory is a University of Manchester research site in Cheshire. Radio telescopes there detect radio waves from space, allowing astronomers to study objects and processes that cannot be understood from visible light alone.
The site contains large dishes, smaller instruments, control and engineering buildings, laboratories and visitor facilities. It is both a working observatory and the historic landscape recognised by UNESCO in 2019.
The Lovell and Mark II telescopes
The Lovell Telescope is a fully steerable dish 76 metres in diameter. Completed as the Mark I Telescope in 1957 and renamed in 1987, it is mounted between two towers and can be directed to different parts of the sky.
The Mark II Telescope became operational in 1964. It is a smaller, 25-metre instrument on the southern part of the site. Both telescopes are Grade I listed and can serve as the Jodrell Bank element of e-MERLIN, depending on an observation's configuration.
How e-MERLIN works
e-MERLIN is the UK's national radio astronomy facility, headquartered at Jodrell Bank and operated by the University of Manchester. Interferometry combines signals from separated telescopes so that they can work as one distributed observing system.
The current facility description lists 7 selectable telescopes: Lovell, Mark II, Pickmere, Darnhall, Knockin, Defford and Cambridge. They span up to 217 kilometres across Great Britain and send data to Jodrell Bank over optical fibre, where signals can be combined in real time.
The station list and observing information were checked against the official e-MERLIN facility website on 29 July 2026.
Other instruments and working buildings
The present 42-foot telescope is a separate instrument from the 66-metre fixed Transit Telescope completed in 1947. The Transit Telescope was later dismantled; the current 42-foot dish replaced a 50-foot telescope on its mount in 1982. A 7-metre steerable dish is also among the site's antennas.
Workshops, cryogenics laboratories and control buildings support the telescopes and receiver systems. These less prominent structures are part of how observations are made and also form part of the site's scientific and engineering history.
The history article follows how these instruments developed, while the scientific achievements article gives selected examples of the work they enabled.
Engineering radio astronomy looks more closely at telescope control, signal transport and receiver engineering.
Three organisations, one site
A current University organisational policy describes three organisations sharing the wider Jodrell Bank site: Jodrell Bank Observatory, the Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).
The Observatory and Centre for Engagement are both part of the University of Manchester but are managed separately. The Centre for Engagement is responsible for public and visitor activity. SKAO is an independent intergovernmental organisation whose global headquarters are at Jodrell Bank.
The University's published organisational policydescribes a Jodrell Bank Governance Group for shared site-wide matters. This coordination does not make the three organisations' operations, governance or funding interchangeable. SKAO's separate status and headquarters role are described by SKAO.
For the schools and public-learning activity led through this setting, read Learning at a working observatory.