Do you know your pulsars from your quasars? Head to Jodrell Bank’s new attraction, the First Light Pavilion, and you soon will. For these questions and more will be answered beneath the grass-topped dome of the new world-class visitor centre when it opens this summer. The cleverly designed Pavilion reflects the shape of the giant white dish of the Lovell Telescope, which has been turned to the sky, listening out for the answer to life, the universe and everything, for more than half a century. The Pavilion, designed by top architecture firm Hassell Studio, is the centrepiece of the £21.5m First Light Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It’s a place to celebrate the past, present and future of a pioneering radio astronomy observatory that has helped transform our understanding of the Universe. In this quiet corner of Cheshire, scientists from the University of Manchester, led by Sir Bernard Lovell, built two of the world’s largest radio telescopes just after the Second World War. The team’s visionary work signalled the birth of a whole new science; the exploration of the universe using radio waves instead of visible light. Jodrell Bank subsequently became a major player in the Space Race, through the tense years of the Cold War, and is now the earliest observatory of its kind still in existence in the world. Did you know? Construction firm Kier, which built the First Light Pavilion, carried out the largest continuous concrete pour in 25 years to create the building’s domed roof. Where can you launch a Sputnik satellite or be showered in meteors? At the First Light Pavilion, which opens its doors at Jodrell Bank this summer. ^\-- Jodrell Bank: The dish of the Lovell Telescope is reflected by the shape of the Pavilion's dome 2022: A SPACE ODDITY 07/17