Today we had the first day of the 35th IMC at Egmond, the Netherlands. The first day is Always very relaxed with plenty of time to chat with friends seeing each other again after one or more years.
The IMC host proved to be a very suitable accommodation for an IMC. About 160 partcipants gathered from 20 countries from all 5 continents. It is the first time that so many participants from all five continents are together at an IMC. The Local Organizing Committee had prepared everything very carefully and all arriving people were quickly registered.
The only official part of the IMC today were the opening speeches. Also these took place in a typical informal IMC style. with Felix Bettonvil sketching the history of the Dutch Meteor Section (Werkgroep Meteoren). Felix referred to a publication of the late 1940’s where meteor astronomy was described to be a domain where mainly amateurs could make useful contributions. Now so many years later, the situation changed and many professional scientists specialized into meteor astronomy. 1 on 3 of the IMC participants today is a professional scientist. After the official opening followed a happy hour with drinks for free at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Dutch Werkgroep Meteoren.
Korado Korlevic (back), Tim Polfliet, Paul Roggemans and Pete Gural exchanging anecdotes.
What will happen next days? Come and see next days on MeteorNews.org to find out!
