The private archive of astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle has been released to the public for the first time. His papers, letters and personal belongings are kept at St John's College, Cambridge. Following a three-year cataloguing project they are now available to view online at www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/.

As a child, Sir Fred showed early mathematical promise and won a scholarship to Bingley Grammar School in 1926. In 1933, with the help of a local education authority grant, he gained a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read natural sciences.

When he was 15 his parents bought him his first telescope. An eight-page letter in the collection details his observations. He wrote: "We had seen the rings of Saturn. It was a beautiful night."

The telescope that started Sir Fred on his astronomical journey is on display in the Old Library at St John's College. This and other artefacts can be seen at the college on 19 March when the Cambridge Science Festival marks the end of the three-year project to catalogue the Hoyle collection.

Sir Fred (second left) intended to read for a natural sciences degree at Emmanuel College but his tutor advised him to take the first year of the Mathematical Tripos in order to improve his maths. Hoyle eventually took his whole degree in mathematics, choosing to concentrate on theoretical physics.

Meeting the Pope in 1957. The astronomer created controversy by arguing that God was not necessary for the Universe to have been created, although later in life he suggested the Universe might be an enormous form of intelligence in its own right.

Sir Fred was perhaps best known for coining the phrase Big Bang, and for rejecting that theory of the creation of the Universe. However, his lasting legacy was in the field of stellar nucleosynthesis where, working with three other scientists, he helped to unravel the process by which chemical elements are made inside stars.

In the early 1960s Sir Fred sketched this plan for a new Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, which he hoped would compete with American astronomical schools. The institute, which looks very much like his sketch, eventually opened in 1967.

While cataloguing Sir Fred's papers, librarian Kate Birkwood found this X-ray of his wife's teeth, taken in 1949. She said the astronomer's archive was extremely disorganised and he would intermittently scoop up anything that was lying around and put it all in a box.

Part of the piano score of the opera, The Alchemy of Love, on which Sir Fred collaborated with his friend, the American composer Leo Smit. Although he was passionate about music, Sir Fred never learned to play an instrument.

Sir Fred (centre) with members of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in 1967. He had spent several years arguing for the institute to be established and even threatened to resign from his post at the university if it was not built.