The Open Day 2010 of ASTRON, JIVE and the NOVA Optical/Infrared group at ASTRON, held on Sunday 24 October at the Westerbork telescope, was a big success. The activities were visited by a broad audience: families with young kids, teenagers and adults visited the astronomical institutes en masse.
Published by the editorial team, 25 October 2010
The activities were divided over two tents, a lecture tent and a tent with the other activities. Here the comet show, the famous Pretlab and Making your own pulsar were the biggest hits.
the pretlab in action
In the tent, ASTRON staff built a complete miniature control room. In the real control room in Dwingeloo, observers of ASTRON control the Westerbork telescope and the LOFAR telescope. In the tent visitors could see how this works.
A visit to the Westerbork telescope is not complete without steering the telescope yourself. This is exactly what visitors could do, using a joystick. Not just a big hit for kids, also adults could pretend to be an astronomer for a minute!
The number of visitors on this open day lied between 1500 and 2000. Other organizations that participated in the open day were: CAMRAS and the department Noord-Drenthe of the Dutch society for Weather and Astronomy.
Click here to see a film of the open day 2010.
Pictures of the open day 2010 can be seen here.