We’re still working on a (probably green) tour bus, which was an idea of – yes, also a friend from the zoo – Jules. I think she’s going to drive it as well. We’ll use it to travel to the different locations, where I’ll be giving lectures about Hanny’s Voorwerp.
So far I’ve done four of these talks. The first one was in October, in my home town Heerlen. I was invited by the director of Explorion and together we announced in the studio of Radio Parkstad, live on air, that I was going to do the kickoff of the tour in that science centre. It’s funny that I always wanted to pay a visit (after a school trip years ago), but it became one of those things on a to-do-list for later. Until now. It was a nice little room with a nice big screen and those forty minutes were over before I knew it. The people there asked good questions, which is always nice.
The next one, also in that month, was for an audience of student teachers from the Hanze University. This ‘school’ is located in Bedum, Groningen, which is on the other side of the country. And even though it’s a little country, it still takes you five hours to get there from my place. This meant I couldn’t travel in the morning, so by lack of a green bus, I took the train the day before. I like trains anyway. Half my family works on trains, they are fast, comfy and environmentally friendly. Anyway, I took the opportunity to see some of the area and it was a perfect day for that. I walked past this beautiful serene landscape with fields, sheep, water, little boats and water birds and the sun shining low and brightly over all of it. I called my mum to tell her how pretty it was and how lucky these people living here are, with such a view. Then I found out that the hotel they booked for me had that same view!
The next morning I was amazed by how genuinely interested the students were. After my talk we went to their observatory and in the afternoon I visited the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, together with the teacher who asked me to come over. There were also two primary schools on the schedule and at one of them, the kids had so many good questions that I spontaneously gave my talk again. I met a lot of people that day and I can say that they were all so nice that for a moment I felt like a ‘Very Important Person’. The teacher gave me an astronomy book, so gradually I am becoming a real amateur astronomer.
The next lecture was planned last month and took place in this beautiful science centre called ‘Sonnenborgh’ in Utrecht. After my talk, professor Kees de Jager gave his view of Hanny’s Voorwerp for our audience of ninety amateur astronomers. I felt honoured to be a guest there, so I was a little surprised when at the end some of those nice people came to ask me for an autograph, but that was fun too.
Last Thursday I did the last talk of this year, in Dwingeloo. I was invited by Mike, general director of ASTRON. They investigated Hanny’s Voorwerp too – but since I’m officially part of the team I guess I should say ‘we’ – and those results were presented after my talk. Before they could do that, we first had to get there though! ‘We’, because Graham came over from the UK and was travelling with me. And it took us a while because first of all Dwingeloo is close to Groningen and second: there was a serious accident with our train. Anyway, they sent a taxi to pick us up, even though we were still not even near the home base of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy.
Surprisingly, we managed to get there sort of on time, but there were already approximately a hundred and fifty astronomers waiting for me to start. So when I arrived I quickly shook some hands and attached myself to a microphone, while someone else was taking care of my laptop. And in the meantime there was also some posing for pictures, which would appear in the newspaper the next morning. This was my first talk in English, which wasn’t hard at all because I had such a nice audience!
After the talk there was another interview, by two young reporters, for their school paper. We also had some drinks followed by a short but nice tour. Then the nice people of ASTRON/JIVE took us out for dinner and we stayed in their wonderful guesthouse (just like real astronomers). They sure know how to make someone feel welcome! Yes, giving talks is certainly something I enjoy doing too, but especially because it’s a good way of telling a lot of people about Galaxy Zoo. And I’ve already been asked to do that a few times next year. Let’s hit the road!
Prof. dr. C de Jager and me in Utrecht.
The new results presented in Dwingeloo. Credit: Graham Bowes.
The interview. Credit: Graham Bowes.
And Graham took this picture the morning after the last talk.
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And thanks again to ASTRON for being perfect hosts
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[...] few years ago, when the discovery of Hanny’s Voorwerp was still fairly new, I was asked to speak about it [...]