Meeting Kapteyn in the Kapteyn Room

Abstract

In the early 1970’s the Kapteyn Laboratory moved from the building Broerstraat 7, next to the University Headquarters where it had been since the years of Kapteyn, to the campus now known as the Zernike Complex. In planning this move, the Board of the University fulfilled the astronomers’ wish to establish in the new quarters a Kapteyn Room dedicated to the founder of the institute. After having been housed on the Zernike Complex for about a decade in the building now known as the “Hoogbouw”, astronomy obtained its current accommodation including the Kapteyn Room in the Zernike Building. The room was furnished with items left from Kapteyn’s days, and serves to store the collection of notebooks, tables, etc. used by Kapteyn and his first successors. Let us dwell for a moment in this room and survey its contents.