Archive for Jodrell Bank Observatory

Jodrell Bank – Patric Dickinson

Posted in Poetry with tags , , , , on July 29, 2026 by telescoper 
Who were they, what lonely men
Imposed upon the fact of night
The fiction of constellations
And made commensurable
The distances between
Themselves their loves and their doubt
Of government and nations;
Who made the dark stable

When the light was not? Now
We receive the blind codes
Of spaces beyond the span
Of our myths, and a long dead star
May only echo how
There are no loves nor gods
Men can invent to explain
How lonely all men are.

This poem is from a collection called “The World I See”, by Patric Dickinson, which was published in 1960. The poem was inspired by a visit to Jodrell Bank observatory. I have posted it before, but it seems apt to post it again now.

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The STFC Cuts

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Science Politics, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2026 by telescoper

News came out yesterday of the results of the latest funding prioritization exercise by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The total savings being made by cuts to astronomy and particle physics are less than the funds allocated to just one AI lab! It seems STFC has to bear the brunt of savings needed so that UKRI, the organization under which STFC sits, can gamble much more on Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technology. It seems to me that these are two bubbles ready to burst and the decision to sink money into them is not only unwise, it places the UK science base at serious risk of collapse.

Anyway, you can find the list of specific cuts here. Radio astronomy is hit particularly hard. The interferometric network e-Merlin is not prioritized and its funding will run out in 2028. That puts Jodrell Bank Observatory in danger of complete closure unless an alternative source of funding can be found. The last time STFC had a financial crisis was in 2009 and e-Merlin might well have been cut then but survived thanks to political intervention at the highest level. I suppose that could happen again, but I wouldn’t bet on it. More bad news is that the UK Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre, with SKA itself already financially troubled, is also earmarked for cuts.

The 76m Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, now under threat of closure

And that’s just radio astronomy and Jodrell Bank is one of the highest-profile casualties. There are cuts and cancellations in many other areas too; see here for a full list.

The Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, has used her platform to campaign against these damaging and short-sighted cuts to UK astronomy, including on social media:

Just off #BBCR4 World at One, arguing the importance of discovery science (like Jodrell) for long-term economic growth. I said I was heartbroken at the news: evidence just look at how exceptionally excited me & @mamaphysikerin.bsky.social were when we got to stand inside Lovell back in 2017 🥰 🔭🧪

— Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans (@astroroyalscot.bsky.social) 2026-07-27T12:38:30.873Z

The same can’t be said for the Astronomer Royal herself, Prof. Michele Dougherty. The reason for that is Prof. Dougherty is also Executive Chair of STFC and is therefore responsible for implementing the cuts. How it is possible for her to remain in both posts is nothing short of a scandal. Such a glaring conflict of interest cannot be allowed to stand. Indeed, Prof. Dougherty was elected to serve as President of the Institute of Physics from October 2025 but stepped down in January 2026 citing concerns of a conflict of interest with her role at STFC. It’s a slap in the face to the Astronomy community that it is not deemed worthy of such consideration.

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SKA Matters

Posted in Science Politics, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on March 13, 2015 by telescoper

There’s been quite a lot going on recently to do with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), some of it scientific and some of it political, some of it good and some of it bad. At least those seem to me to be the appropriate descriptions.

First the scientific good news is the the SKA Board has decided which of the planned components of SKA should be constructed during the first phase, which has a budget of around €650M. Details can be found here but, in a nutshell, it seems that the SKA Survey Telescope, which was to be built around the existing pathfinder project ASKAP located in Australia is not going to be built in the first phase. This implies the low-frequency bit of SKA will be in Australia while the higher-frequency activities will be concentrated in South Africa. That seems a pragmatic decision to me based on the budgetary constraints and should lead to a lot of good science being done. At the very least it’s a clear decision.

This positive news has however been overshadowed by an unseemly spat over the choice of headquarters over the location of the SKA Headquarters which has culminated in a rather unhelpful story in Nature. SKA HQ has been temporarily housed at Jodrell Bank Observatory (in the Midlands) since 2012 and there are clearly some who would like it to be located there permanently. There is however a rival bid, from the historic Italian city of Padova, at whose university Galileo Galilei once lectured, and which remains one of the top universities in Italy.

I should put my cards on the table and say that I’ve enjoyed many visits to Padova in my career, starting when I was a PhD student back in the 1980s and have many fond memories of the place. The late co-author of my cosmology textbook, Francesco Lucchin was Director of the Department of Astronomy in Padova at that time. For many years Padova has been home to a large concentration of astronomers and is undoubtedly a centre of excellence. Moreover it is a city that is very well served by transport links, just a short distance from Venice so easily reachable by air, and also on a major railway line offering fast national and international services. It’s also a considerably better place to dine out than Jodrell Bank!

Specola

Padova’s astronomers are housed in the Castello Carrese which adjoins the Specola (above), a tower which was once a working astronomical observatory but, being right in the city centre, has not been useful for such purposes for many moons. When I first started going to Padova the Department of Astronomy was located in the tower and in some nearby buildings but the rest of the Castello Carrese was used as a prison. Now it’s been renovated and all the astronomers have been located there. I remember the frequent walks across the little bridge over the canal to a coffee bar where we often did some of our best research!

Given its strategically important location, Padova was bombed by Allied planes on a number of occasions in 1944 and 1945. My Italian colleagues would regularly draw my attention to the plaque near the entrance to the Specola pointing out that it was hit and badly damaged by Allied bombs during one raid.

Anyway I can certainly see the merits of locating SKA HQ in Padova but it’s not my decision to make. Those responsible have not yet made a final decision, but what’s sad is that a number of stories have been flying around in the media that imply that the UK is trying to exert undue political interference to stop SKA HQ being moved to Italy. Whether this is true or not I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned the powers that be are following proper process and that process has not yet been brought to a conclusion. Whatever the outcome, though, there’s no question that the language being used in the press coverage is very damaging. Let’s hope it can all be resolved amicably.

Now for a spot of lunch and then up to the Royal Astronomical Society where the topic of the Discussion Meeting is, somewhat ironically, Building an Open UK SKA-Science Consortium…

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