6
Laboratory and Statistical Astronomy
‘Messy’, concluded Mr. Charles C. M. Carlier. ‘And sloppy!’
It all was, if you considered it carefully, really quite messy, sloppy actually,
and unfinished –the creation and all that, the starry sky and all that,
even though it was the summer sky of his beloved Provence.
‘Typical rush job’, said Mr. Charles C. M. Carlier.
Hendricus Frederikus van der Kalle, alias Havank (1904–1964)
It has always irked me as improper that there are still so many people
for whom the sky is no more than a mass of random points of light.
I do not see why we should recognize a house, a tree, or a flower here below
and not, for example, the red Arcturus up there in the heavens as it hangs from its
constellation Boötes, like a basket hanging from a balloon.
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972)
The final part of the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung was published in 1900,
the last year of the nineteenth century. Kapteyn, who was to celebrate his fiftieth
birthday in January of the next year, had been working on it for more than a
decade. But it would be wrong to think that he had not done any other work. In
that year 1900, for example, he started the series Publications of the Astronomical
Hendricus Frederikus van der Kalle was a Dutch writer of detective stories. This quote is from Lijk
Halfstok (1948) [54]: ‘Rommelig’, besloot Charles C. M. Carlier. ‘En slordig!’ Het was, als je ’t goed
naging, eigenlijk allemaal nogal rommelig, slordig eigenlijk, en onafgewerkt; –de schepping en zo, de
sterrenhemel en zo, zelfs al was het de zomerse sterrenhemel van zijn geliefd Provence. ‘Typisch
haastwerk’, zei mijnheer Charles C. M. Carlier.
M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist, often inspired by mathematical concepts and regularities, see
[55]. As the trema shows the name Boötes if pronounced with three syllables
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_6
91
Laboratory and Statistical Astronomy
‘Messy’, concluded Mr. Charles C. M. Carlier. ‘And sloppy!’
It all was, if you considered it carefully, really quite messy, sloppy actually,
and unfinished –the creation and all that, the starry sky and all that,
even though it was the summer sky of his beloved Provence.
‘Typical rush job’, said Mr. Charles C. M. Carlier.
Hendricus Frederikus van der Kalle, alias Havank (1904–1964)
It has always irked me as improper that there are still so many people
for whom the sky is no more than a mass of random points of light.
I do not see why we should recognize a house, a tree, or a flower here below
and not, for example, the red Arcturus up there in the heavens as it hangs from its
constellation Boötes, like a basket hanging from a balloon.
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972)
The final part of the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung was published in 1900,
the last year of the nineteenth century. Kapteyn, who was to celebrate his fiftieth
birthday in January of the next year, had been working on it for more than a
decade. But it would be wrong to think that he had not done any other work. In
that year 1900, for example, he started the series Publications of the Astronomical
Hendricus Frederikus van der Kalle was a Dutch writer of detective stories. This quote is from Lijk
Halfstok (1948) [54]: ‘Rommelig’, besloot Charles C. M. Carlier. ‘En slordig!’ Het was, als je ’t goed
naging, eigenlijk allemaal nogal rommelig, slordig eigenlijk, en onafgewerkt; –de schepping en zo, de
sterrenhemel en zo, zelfs al was het de zomerse sterrenhemel van zijn geliefd Provence. ‘Typisch
haastwerk’, zei mijnheer Charles C. M. Carlier.
M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist, often inspired by mathematical concepts and regularities, see
[55]. As the trema shows the name Boötes if pronounced with three syllables
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_6
91