Jess @Westerbork & Lofar

© Denis Schrama

Some time ago I asked Jessica if she wanted to visit Westerbork WSRT and the LOFAR site in a casual way. The maintenance crew wanted to show her WSRT and LOFAR through the eyes of a maintenance engineer. And also talk a about some of our concerns about the future of the WSRT and LOFAR.

Immediately she accepted with the words "Yes! I want to get my hands dirty!"

And there we went... After a short welcome at the WSRT site with tea and timtams she got a tour through the building and a visit to the dishes, then we all went to LOFAR.

And the promise was kept, hands became dirty! After a short talk about LOFAR in general at core station 501, Jessica repaired a LBA antenna and didn't stop there, the HBA had to be opened at once! (here and there we gave some pointers...)

It was a very positive visit and we think it was nice to see that our director also likes to come and see and experience the practical side of keeping these wonderful telescopes working for years to come.

A big thanks to the whole maintenance team: Ronald Schrik, Lute van der Bult, Peter Gruppen, Zabet Ahmadi, Derkjan Pepping and myself.

And we all take our hat off to Jessica, thank you.