Point of Interest Dossier: Jodrell Bank ObservatoryCopy Anchor Link

"The huge yellow somethings went unnoticed at Goonhilly, they passed over Cape Canaveral without a blip, Woomera and Jodrell Bank looked straight through them — which was a pity because it was exactly the sort of thing they'd been looking for all these years...
Miles above the surface of the planet the huge yellow somethings began to fan out. At Jodrell Bank, someone decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea."

— The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 3

Overview & Geographic SettingCopy Anchor Link

Situated among the quiet dairy pastures and leafy lanes of Lower Withington in Cheshire, England, on planet Earth (Sol III), Jodrell Bank Observatory was the spiritual home of terrestrial radio astronomy.

Founded in 1945 by Sir Bernard Lovell, the observatory stood as a testament to the insatiable curiosity of ape-descended primates who, despite being entirely unable to agree on economic or political matters, constructed an astonishing parabolic steel eye to listen to the faint whispers of exploding galaxies millions of light-years away.

The Lovell Telescope (Mark I)Copy Anchor Link

Dominating the tranquil Cheshire skyline was the legendary Lovell Telescope (originally designated the 250-foot radio telescope):

• Engineering Prowess: Featuring a 250-foot (76.2-metre) steerable bowl weighing over three thousand tons, mounted on two massive lattice-steel towers pivoting on circular railway tracks recycled from decommissioned Royal Navy battleship gun turrets.
• Cold War Space Tracking: During the early space race, Jodrell Bank was the only radar station in the western world capable of tracking the carrier rockets of Sputnik 1 and the early Soviet Luna probes.
• Galactic Acoustic Profile: While terrestrial astronomers thought they were listening to pulsars, neutral hydrogen emissions, and quasars, Megadodo researchers later confirmed that roughly forty percent of Jodrell Bank's background recordings consisted of Sub-Etha commercials for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and stray broadcast interference from Megadodo Publications.

The Final Thursday & The Relaxing Cup of TeaCopy Anchor Link

On the Thursday of Earth's demolition, as several dozen huge yellow chunky slablike Vogon Constructor Ships soared quietly through the ionosphere basking in electromagnetic rays from Sol:

1. Looking Straight Through Them: Despite decades of searching the skies, Woomera and Jodrell Bank looked straight through them, while the fleet went unnoticed at Goonhilly and passed over Cape Canaveral without a blip—"which was a pity because it was exactly the sort of thing they'd been looking for all these years."
2. A Nice Relaxing Cup of Tea: Minutes later, as Ford Prefect's Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic began to wink more quickly on top of his towel at The Horse and Groom and the huge yellow somethings began to fan out miles above the planet's surface, someone at Jodrell Bank simply decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea.
3. Alternate Radio-Series Account: (In the earlier Primary Radio Series Fit the First broadcasts, Jodrell Bank, Goonhilly Downs, and Woomera were credited with briefly picking up the approaching fleet on telemetry.)

Interstellar StatusCopy Anchor Link

In the Megadodo archives, Jodrell Bank is celebrated as: "The premier terrestrial auditory dish. Built with railway bogies, battleship steel, and boundless British optimism, it was the first listening post to discover that space was not, in fact, an empty void, but a vast bureaucratic administrative nightmare."