Daily Image
30-12-2008
Icy Exloo 2008
| Submitter: | Jan Noordam |
| Description: | The builders of LOFAR are a hardy bunch of romantics. Where lesser men would have huddled around their stoves during the recent cold spell in the Netherlands, the LOFAR Chief Scientist set out delightedly to inspect the frozen devastation from which the LOFAR core will bloom forth in 2009. As shown in earlier pictures, the stations of the LOFAR core will be situated on elevated areas, surrounded by water. Very Dutch. Near the centre there is the LOFAR "super-terp" or "citadel", an elevated area with a diameter of 300m, circled by a "moat" with a length of exactly 1 km. The moat is now (mostly) covered with "black" ice of unusual quality. We plan to celebrate this unexpected diplet in the Global Warming to organize the LOFAR skating championships for the first (and sadly perhaps the last) time. It will consist of 42 laps of the moat. We confidently predict that the winner (and the next 5 or so) will be at least 60 years old. However, the much-vaunted Next Generation is cordially encouraged to take up this galling gauntlet. Foreign entries are also welcomed, so that the young Dutchmen may not be last. The pictures above show the moat in its various guises, being inspected for ice strength and smoothness. Since the ice still creaked and groaned, your photographer vainly prayed for it to break, giving rise to a more dramatic picture. No such luck. We hope to see you all in Exloo. |
| Copyright: | ASTRON |
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