Museum Night in the House of Christiaan Huygens.
Once a year, hundreds of museums in the Netherlands stay open to the public into the night, often with special exhibitions and, of course, in conjunction with local restaurants.
My public observatory was allowed to participate this year at the home of Christiaan Huygens, the discoverer of Titan and the first to realize that rings revolved around Saturn. So we were present with a 7 inch Apochomatic refractor and, to demonstrate that it can also be done easily, with my GnG
Alt-Az 102 mm Maksutov. Our targets were Jupiter and Saturn, which fortunately stayed just above the trees during the evening.
Visitors queue up. I am seen at the right. Jupiter is visible too. The name of the house is Hofwijck. It was in this garden that Christiaan discovered Titan!!!
The 7 inch Astrophisycs refractor. The owner is standing behind it.
The event at Hofwijck attracted over 300 visitors. Inside there were lectures on Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens, (by the Huygens brothers themselves) and in the optics attic one could admire various inventions of Christiaan. A beer tasting in the 17th century kitchen of the building will undoubtedly have contributed to the revelry.
Visitors were welcomed by the Huygens brothers.
From 8 pm onwards, my fellow observer and I were busy giving the huge stream of visitors a glimpse of the two planets.The number of times I heard "wow" shouted was uncountable. Especially at the large Saturn telescope of course. Even Christiaan came along to see "his Titan and Rings." About 20% of the visitors were also able to see cloud belts on Jupiter through the small Maksutov and about 5 of them even saw color! Interesting that no one except us noticed the
GRS. From 11pm onwards we switched targets, as Saturn sank behind the trees, the large refractor could no longer reach it and I could much more easily take up a higher position near the entrance. From that moment on, I got the "wow" avalanche over me!
It was a pleasant outreach, more so because we lifted along with the publicity the Museum had given it. We expect more visitors this winter season as a result!
