Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren 2015

© ASTRON / NPO / Max

Tonight at 21:25, "Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren" on NPO1 will be one the shows to open the new TV season, which traditionally starts in Fall. As the name suggests, this show aims to inform the general Dutch audience. It is positioned to be self-contained, without needing much existing knowledge to still be enjoyable to watch. Dutchies may sense the link to shows like "Heel Holland Bakt", which indeed has some overlap in editorial crew (!).

In 2014, HNKS was broadcast live from Westerbork, and, thanks to the hard work of many at ASTRON, drew a amazing 1.3 million viewers. This year the show comes live from the Oude Sterrenwacht in Leiden, with a report from LOFAR. That report was recorded on a very wet day but came out well. Note, in the image top-left, the simulated mobile app that shows the sky as LOFAR sees it, through the clouds that hide it from our eyes in optical. Bottom right shows a demonstration on distance and look-back time. The report uses great images from Sarod Yatawatta, John McKean & Michael Wise, and Francesco De Gasperin. Thanks to you all for taking the effort to convert your science image into a pretty picture; other readers of this daily image are encouraged to post their best LOFAR/WSRT/.. images on the ASTRON pretty astronomical picture page, and reach an audience of over a million.