The King's 50th birthday

© Madroon Community Consultants (MCC)

On April 27th 2017, our gracious King Willem Alexander turns 50. Since the four sister institutes in Dwingeloo (ASTRON, JIVE, NOVA and DOME) are no strangers to royal patronage, we celebrate King's Day by more than just not working. The image shows a lovely orange crown, which was produced in-house by means of 3D printing. It is tastefully placed on top of a bowl with 50 little crowns that were produced with the same advanced technique.

The Monarch's birthday has been celebrated at the end of April(*) since 1949, the year in which SRZM, the forerunner of ASTRON, was founded. It is deemed to mark the end of the miserably cold part of the Dutch spring, and thus the harbinger of better times.

(*) Since it is not always easy to ensure that the next monarch is born at the end of April, it has been suggested that we adopt the date of birth of the Father of the Dutch nation, William of Orange, on April 24th 1533.