Daily image
Dwingeloo telescope 70 years
© Nationaal Archief / Tammo Jan Dijkema
The button that played a central role in the opening ceremony recently returned to the telescope, when a former ASTRON employee brought it back. He had taken it home in the 1990s, when it would otherwise have been discarded during a round of cleaning. The button is now kept in the ‘museum’ of CAMRAS, together with other historical artefacts.
The button bears the name of HEMAF (“Hengelosche Electrische en Mechanische Apparaten Fabriek”), a company from Hengelo that supplied a large part of the electrical installation of the Dwingeloo telescope.
CAMRAS celebrated the 70th anniversary of the telescope and the 75th anniversary of the first detection of the hydrogen line with a seminar on amateur observing of the 21 cm line.