Today we visited the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Tickets were not too outrageous and Sophia got a modest student discount. They also took cash although this did involve buying the tickets in the gift shop rather than at the entrance.
Overall, the visitor centre is quite good although the whole site was a little bit repetitive. You could read the story of how the Lovell telescope was in severe financial difficulties but was saved when it was the only facility able to track the rocket used to launch Sputnik 1 in at least four or five different places!
The Lovell telescope if of course the star of the show and very impressive to see up close. It was parked pointing straight up when we visited as it was being painted.
Dad would of course have liked far more technical details about the telescope and its receivers and there would have been room to include such details if other information had been repeated far less often!
The site also includes an extensive arboretum which we wandered around for a while. This probably needed more signs indicating tree species and less long grass and blackberries – although in the latter case Dad did of course help himself to a few berries.