2.1 Barneveld
15
Fig. 2.2 Star chart, made by Kapteyn at the age of fourteen; it now hangs in the Kapteyn
Room at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen
and had then settled in Heerde, but old and younger friends from Groningen
still visited him there regularly. Maarten van Rhijn wrote:
When one of his younger friends once told him that the astronomer Kapteyn
liked to read the Saint John Gospel in his spare time, Jonker asked him what
Kapteyn actually believed himself. In response to the answer: ‘Kapteyn believes
that everything will probably be fine in the end’, Jonker immediately replied with
the words: ‘Jeepers, that’s an excellent faith’.
Maarten van Rhijn, himself a professor of theology in Utrecht, was a brother
of Pieter Johannes van Rhijn (1886–1960), eventually Kapteyn’s successor as
professor of astronomy in Groningen. It is quite possible that this ‘younger
friend’ actually was Pieter van Rhijn (or Maarten himself, who had heard it
from Pieter). I thank Klaas van Berkel for bringing this to my attention.
Kapteyn was only sixteen years old when he passed the entrance exam for
the University of Utrecht. However, his father thought he was far too young
to go and live in the student town and he stayed in Barneveld for another
15
Fig. 2.2 Star chart, made by Kapteyn at the age of fourteen; it now hangs in the Kapteyn
Room at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen
and had then settled in Heerde, but old and younger friends from Groningen
still visited him there regularly. Maarten van Rhijn wrote:
When one of his younger friends once told him that the astronomer Kapteyn
liked to read the Saint John Gospel in his spare time, Jonker asked him what
Kapteyn actually believed himself. In response to the answer: ‘Kapteyn believes
that everything will probably be fine in the end’, Jonker immediately replied with
the words: ‘Jeepers, that’s an excellent faith’.
Maarten van Rhijn, himself a professor of theology in Utrecht, was a brother
of Pieter Johannes van Rhijn (1886–1960), eventually Kapteyn’s successor as
professor of astronomy in Groningen. It is quite possible that this ‘younger
friend’ actually was Pieter van Rhijn (or Maarten himself, who had heard it
from Pieter). I thank Klaas van Berkel for bringing this to my attention.
Kapteyn was only sixteen years old when he passed the entrance exam for
the University of Utrecht. However, his father thought he was far too young
to go and live in the student town and he stayed in Barneveld for another