A multitude of people took part, this weekend, in the open days organised by the public observatory Mira, for its 50th anniversary.
It is located in Grimbergen. A Mira collaborator, Francis Meeus, indicated, “More than a thousand visitors came to the observatory over these two days, and we are delighted with this result.”
On Saturday, a total of 200 people attended the academic session, delivered jointly by the Professor in Theoretical Physics at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), by the globally recognised cosmologist, Hugo Thienpont, also Professor of the Faculty of Engineering at the Flemish Free University of Brussels (“VUB”) and the Director of the Brussels Photonics Team. The final joint collaborator in this session was Ewine Van Dishoeck, the Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at the Leyde Observatory in the Netherlands.
Moreover, in the evening, some 300 people first attended the launch of the new exhibition, followed by the conference of Professor Anne-Marie Lambeir from the University of Antwerp, and finally the flagship event of evening, observing the stars.
Francis Meeus stressed, “Sunday was a particularly lively and fascinating day.” He went on, “It was mainly focused upon children. They were able to enjoy themselves through all sorts of games and experiments, as well as an impressive scientific show. We did not have optimum weather for the occasion, which meant that we could not undertake major telescopic observations of stars and constellations. However, all the same, overall we can speak of the event as being a resounding success.”
The Brussels Times