Tuesday morning, I decided I’d have breakfast at the hotel again. I didn’t actually read the complimentary newspaper before, but since I was taking my time, I thought I’d check up on the local football team. And then I saw my own name in The Seattle Times. It was a funny start of yet another nice day.
Chris and I had figured it would be good for me to stay the day after the press conference to speak to a lot more people and of course I could visit any interesting lecture or stand I wanted. We had given out his American number for people to reach me on too though, so we stayed close. And when I said for the so-manieth time this day truly was a present too, Chris jokingly added he’d planned it all this way of course. He didn’t have a press badge for himself though and when I asked if he wanted to be me for a few hours he said: “Of course, everybody here wants to be you”.
And as he introduced me to a lot of interesting people, that sometimes almost seemed true. There were about two thousand people here who’d probably heard of me in any case, and everyone I shook hands with was very nice. There was even a girl who replied: “Oh my God, the Hanny? Can I hug you?” And there were a few people who’d said after meeting me that I’m “very friendly in real life”. Just to shed a light on how it is to be this sort of ‘famous’. So Chris basically gave me the spotlight but I often looked at him thinking he must be so proud of what he has already achieved with all of his amazing projects…
And even here, there were people who didn’t know me. ASTRON’s Michael was telling me he didn’t know a lot of famous people and therefore liked to introduce me to others and then when he did, the guy I was introduced to – refreshingly – had never heard of me. There was also this lady who dropped a leaflet, while she had her hands full. I picked it up for her and when I noticed it was one of ours, I gave it back saying: “Oh that’s a good one”, without her realising why I said that. And to keep my feet on the ground for sure, one of my newly-made-friends replied to me saying I’m invited for an-hour-radio-interview-in-a-show-about-beautiful-and-smart-woman: “So why did they ask you?”
Anyway, that evening we were invited to a Star Party and Open House at the University of Washington Planetarium and the reception included a demonstration of the new fully digital dome system, which looked awesome! There was a round sort of couch around the dome where you could lie on and watch the sky in 3D. When the audience was asked to shout their favourite object I whispered to Rob next to me: “Shall I say The Voorwerp?” And they actually had that too! During drinks afterwards I found out that the talk I had with Chris that afternoon about the science behind our discoveries really had made sense, as I passed the test of explaining it myself! We had our own after party in the Taphouse, where we would meet Jason again too. He thought it was necessary to spell ‘BBC’ for me, Chris and I discussed our stalkers and Jason and Chris were finally ‘bonding’. It was one those evenings where “you had to be” again.
The next morning I pretty much only had time to pack and say goodbye. Of course, I stopped by at Ann’s desk, the angel who’d helped me getting around here. And as I was travelling ‘back to the future’, I got foolishly sentimental when the view of Orion from the plane made it look so close. I saw it turn dark twice that day and have experienced that the weird thing about jetlag is that you could make me believe at any given point it was any given time. It didn’t matter. My connecting flight had people in it reading a national newspaper with me in it and only the steward had recognised me.
Meanwhile I was just hoping I hadn’t forget anyone, as for me it was almost like being on a holiday together and I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the grand time properly. The last few days I heard here and there people actually read these thoughts of mine here though, so: thank you! Thank you Adler Planetarium! Thank you Chris, Bill, Kevin, Rob, Jordan, amazing Zoo-crew! Thank you Michiel, Michael, George and Joeri, wonderful ASTRON-team (also for sending my merchandise). Thank you Jason, Henk-Sjoerd, Marieke, Govert and all the other charming press people I spoke to, thanks to everyone involved in the American Astronomical Society meeting and to those attending and thanks to everyone around the world for their nice messages! I’ve read somewhere someone said that Citizen Science couldn’t have asked for a better spokesperson, but you know, I was honoured! It’s incredible to be a part of this and to be able to show people they can participate in science too. You only need to want to.
The amazing dome at the Star Party. Picture: Hanny van Arkel.
Lovely girl in the back, Zookeeper Rob, Chris and Jason’s hand, in the Taphouse.
Picture: Hanny van Arkel.
Chris & Jason. Are you trying to tell me something guys? 
Picture: Hanny van Arkel.
The city of Seattle as I left it. Picture: Hanny van Arkel.
One Comment
What a lovely account of a great adventure. Reminds me of our great trip to Astron when you presented your first lecture to professional astronomers. Happy days
x
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[...] evening. There was also the surprise of meeting Ben, who turned out to be a friend of a friend; of Jason, who didn’t make it in the end. Small [...]