LOFAR is the world’s largest radio telescope. It is an international collaboration with stations in four other European countries and a pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array. LOFAR is also a sensor network with applications in the areas of geophysics, precision agriculture and ICT.
Said the official invitation I got from the General Director of ASTRON – Mike Garrett. Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands would perform the official inauguration of LOFAR on Saturday, the 12th of June in Buinen (The Netherlands).
I’d never actually seen the Queen and I like being involved in these kind of things. As usual, everything was taken care of very well and after arrival at the nearest station in Drenthe, there was a bus waiting for all those dressed-up people attending the opening.
It took us to a nice location in the middle of the fields. There were very tasty orange pastries with the LOFAR logo and we got to see presentations showing how cool the science is we can do with this telescope, before our Queen pushed the button and the opening was a fact. For me it was also nice to see some familiar ASTRON faces again and it was great to meet a few interesting people who thought my face was familiar.
Here are three pictures from the event, taken by Paul Boven.
The Queen officially opening LOFAR.
Yours truly outside the venue with some of the ASTRON staff.
The antennas.
One Comment
Wow, an amazing story about an amazing day. You all look so happy in these pics. I guess the queen being there had something to do with that. Great that you had the chance to catch up with some faces, old and new. x
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