Today Mandy's friend Claire and Andy (Claire's partner) came over for the weekend to visit. So rather than spend the day at home we decided to take a little trip to Jodrell Bank which is only about 20 minutes from our front door (I can see if from some of the hills on a good day). I remember going there as a kid and had always wanted to go again as they had a brilliant visitor centre with a really cool planetarium.
My how things have changed. We got there and the admission charge was really inexpensive, only £1.50 for Mandy and I, with an additional £1 each for the 3D cinema. Matthew, being under 4, went in free with everything. All of the brilliant stuff I remember as a boy, the cool hands-on experiments, the neat model of the main radio telescope control system, even the planetarium was all gone. All they had left were 2 touch screen monitors and the black hole simulator where you rolled a ball around a funnel, but that didn't have any of the information that used to be there to tell you what it represented. Everything was contained within one room, with a small other bit consisting of the 3D cinema, which was pretty good. You get given a pair of glasses as you walk in, and Matthew even sat through the performance with his glasses on (which was a trip to Mars) and said things like "space ship" and "space rock".
The telescope itself was very impressive, and they were using it whilst we where there, but all in all a very disappointing trip, especially as I had told everyone that it would be brilliant and then it wasn't. They did have a guy working there who was totally into everything and even got on the PA system and let you know what the telescope was doing. The enthusiasm of this guy kind of saved it, but they really need to do more to get my vote.