Abstract
Kapteyn and Groningen This chapter first summarizes the state of positional and sidereal astronomy and then moves on to Kapteyni;s background and his professorship in Groningen. Oorti’s studies in Groningen quickly took a turn when the lectures by Kapteyn inspired him so much that he decided to definitely choose for astronomy as his main subject. His student life included activities as rowing competition, but he also was fond of skating and dancing. He won an essay contest with older student Jan Schilt. His first research concerned stars of high velocity.
Those that thoroughly study the lives of those, that on this Earth
did accomplish something significant, are always struck by the
phenomenon that the real strength of these people has been a
shortcoming turned into a quality.
Godfried Bomans.
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative
expression and knowledge.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
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- 1.
I have been chairman of the Board since 1998, so what else can I say.
- 2.
This in turn I inherited as a student from Oort. It has resulted in me presenting all my students after defending their Ph.D. theses, as a personal gift a copy of the fascinating book The Sleepwalkers: A history of man’s changing vision of the Universe by Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) [51], which presents the same point of view and contains a comprehensive biography of Kepler.
- 3.
For more background and discussion of the issue of Hubble’s discoveries and his apparent lack of giving credit to others when appropriate, see the proceedings of the conference Origins of the expanding Universe: 1912–1932 [56].
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van der Kruit, P.C. (2019). Kapteyn and Groningen. In: Jan Hendrik Oort. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 459. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17801-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17801-7_2
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