© ASTRON
One of the many activities included a Moon-walk explaining the why and how of Lunar phase and eclipses, Earth's tides, and space travel. This excursion ended at the Waagplein next to the City Hall, below a 7m diameter Moon created the British artist Luke Jerram, see picture. Having been a stadjer (*) myself I was delighted to present our ASTRON Lunar NCLE receiver work, during two general public excursions on Thursday evening.
After explaining celestial dynamics by word and by body movement, we arrived below the south pole of the Moon, where we had an awesome view despite the heavy rain. The 1969 Apollo 11 landing site was visible a bit higher-up at the 'near-side' of the Moon. At this scale, the Chang'e 4 communicaton satellite carrying our NCLE receiver, was hovering nearly two hundred metres South in the direction of the Herenstraat. We were able to spot the Chang'e4 Lunar Lander area in the Aitken crater, where it hopefully will successfully land after an envisioned launch coming Month.
(*) Groningen city people