It is a real stretch to suggest that the Jodrell Bank Observatory is a Manchester attraction but if you approach the city from the south-west the Lovel Telescope, shown above, is hard to miss.  The other connection of course is the fact that the observatory belongs to Manchester University.  It hosts a number of radio telescopes, and is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. It is located near Goostrey and Holmes Chapel in Cheshire.

As the observatory web site explains: "The main telescope at the observatory is the Lovell Telescope, which is the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world. There are three other active telescopes located at the observatory; the Mark II, as well as 42 ft and 7 m diameter radio telescopes. Jodrell Bank Observatory is also the base of the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN), a National Facility run by the University of Manchester on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council."

"The observatory was established in 1945 by Sir Bernard Lovell, who wanted to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in the Second World War. It has since played an important role in the research of meteors, quasars, pulsars, masers and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age."

Cutbacks in government funding have put the future of the observatory in doubt.