6
1 Prelude and Framework
1835 more accurately than many other astronomers, and was given a new
telescope and an observator as assistant (the same Oudemans who later went
to Utrecht). He then became a professor in 1840. In 1861 a brand-new ‘Sterrewacht’ was opened in the hortus botanicus. Figure 1.3 show a picture of the
Sterrewacht Leiden in 1865, not long before Kapteyn worked there. Kaiser
retired in 1872 and Hendricus van de Sande Bakhuyzen succeeded him as
director and had been responsible for hiring Kapteyn as observator in 1875.
Kapteyn worked here until he was appointed in Groningen early 1878.
At the time of Kapteyn’s appointment in Groningen, Dutch astronomy
played a modest role internationally. The Sterrewacht Leiden had acquired an
excellent reputation thanks to the work of Frederik Kaiser and Hendricus van
de Sande Bakhuyzen because of the great accuracy with which positions of
stars and other objects were measured. But other countries such as Germany
and the United Kingdom set the tone. Despite, and perhaps thanks to, the
handicap of not having his own observational facility, Kapteyn became in his
days one of the most influential and leading astronomers in the world. Since
then, Dutch astronomy has occupied a prominent position worldwide. The
Dutch Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), a coordinating organization
of the research institutes at Dutch universities, was selected in 1998 as one of
six ‘top research schools’ in the Netherlands. In an international assessment in
2010, two of the top research schools subsequently received the designation
‘exemplary’ (even higher than ‘excellent’). NOVA was one of the two (and
this status has been confirmed since) and astronomy is therefore among the
absolute top of Dutch scientific endeavor.
That enormous success started with Kapteyn. To understand the way this
came about we need to go back to the middle of the nineteenth century to the
small town of Barneveld, where Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn was born in 1851.
1 Prelude and Framework
1835 more accurately than many other astronomers, and was given a new
telescope and an observator as assistant (the same Oudemans who later went
to Utrecht). He then became a professor in 1840. In 1861 a brand-new ‘Sterrewacht’ was opened in the hortus botanicus. Figure 1.3 show a picture of the
Sterrewacht Leiden in 1865, not long before Kapteyn worked there. Kaiser
retired in 1872 and Hendricus van de Sande Bakhuyzen succeeded him as
director and had been responsible for hiring Kapteyn as observator in 1875.
Kapteyn worked here until he was appointed in Groningen early 1878.
At the time of Kapteyn’s appointment in Groningen, Dutch astronomy
played a modest role internationally. The Sterrewacht Leiden had acquired an
excellent reputation thanks to the work of Frederik Kaiser and Hendricus van
de Sande Bakhuyzen because of the great accuracy with which positions of
stars and other objects were measured. But other countries such as Germany
and the United Kingdom set the tone. Despite, and perhaps thanks to, the
handicap of not having his own observational facility, Kapteyn became in his
days one of the most influential and leading astronomers in the world. Since
then, Dutch astronomy has occupied a prominent position worldwide. The
Dutch Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), a coordinating organization
of the research institutes at Dutch universities, was selected in 1998 as one of
six ‘top research schools’ in the Netherlands. In an international assessment in
2010, two of the top research schools subsequently received the designation
‘exemplary’ (even higher than ‘excellent’). NOVA was one of the two (and
this status has been confirmed since) and astronomy is therefore among the
absolute top of Dutch scientific endeavor.
That enormous success started with Kapteyn. To understand the way this
came about we need to go back to the middle of the nineteenth century to the
small town of Barneveld, where Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn was born in 1851.