The signs have already been painted over, the whisper dish for an end-of-year stunt has been stolen, but almost nothing has changed on the route itself in the past fifty years. Until now, because Drenthe has a new Melkwegpad.
The Melkwegpad is located next to Camp Westerbork Memorial Center in Hooghalen and on the route to the former camp site. It belongs to the company ASTRON, which also handles the radio telescopes in the area. The walk displays the relative distance between planets and the sun. One step is equivalent to 2.5 million kilometers in the universe.
The path must be a special combination of nature, science and history, explains Marco de Vos of ASTRON. “I think the feeling of awe of those large dishes, the feeling that the former camp gives, complement each other well.” The telephone must also be switched off during the walk, because the telescopes mean that walkers are in an interference-free zone. “So you can’t look at the latest messages for a while. You have to listen to the birds, whisper in the whisper dishes, just a place where you are not distracted.”
Due to the radio silence, an interactive route with an app is therefore not possible. However, everything has been done to make the route more up-to-date. “So the plates are very classic,” explains De Vos. “There are questions on the boards and you can lift a cheat window with a flap to view the answer. It shows how we want astronomy to be: exciting, fun, with new discoveries. It’s not boring and dusty.”
De Vos was pointed out to the dusty character by a student of Science Communication and Astronomy from the University of Groningen. “She once walked around here and said in her internship assignment: do something about it. Then we said: fine, come up with ideas. It’s there now.”
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