The quality of the photos has also improved due to advancing technology. “You can now take photos that were previously unthinkable. As amateurs, we now take photos that you could not even take with a professional observatory 40 years ago.”
Van den Braak is certainly not the only one who spends hours looking at the starry sky in the head of Drenthe. “The interest is growing day by day, which is unimaginable. Our association has had around 30 members for a long time, but in recent years it has skyrocketed to 42 members. We are relatively small, but very active.”
For example, the association organizes observation evenings at dark locations in North Drenthe, professional observatories and astronomy fairs are visited and there is a lecture once a month. “That’s for the armchair astronomers, we say,” Van den Braak jokes. “Our lectures are in principle free, but if you come often, we would like you to become a member.”
The youth do not yet know how to find the association, says Van den Braak. “The new members are not teenagers or early twenties. They are usually around 30 years old. Apparently they have the house ready and the children are out of diapers and they want to do what they have been planning for a long time.”
Van den Braak is sometimes impressed by fellow amateur astronomers. “Some people know the entire starry sky like the back of their hand. They have a kind of photographic memory. They immediately notice it when they see a new point of light in the sky. Then you must be made of a special cloth.”