In the mid to late 80’s a bunch of teenagers became members of JVS Quasar. The Youth Association for Astronomy in Ostend. Where, even though they couldn’t have imagined it at the time, they became friends for life…
When they became too old to continue being part of a youth association in the late 1990s, they decided to start a new astronomy and space-oriented adult organization. This is how the AEG, or the Astro Event Group vzw, was born. Until we were told at the end of 2010 that we would lose our premises due to the sale of the building in which we were housed. Which gave us the choice to cease to exist or to attempt to build our own modest building. This is because there appeared to be no rooms available…
Despite the fact that we had gotten older, had a life partner and some had even had children, our passion was too strong to just throw in the towel. Studies were made, extensive files were written and plans were made to raise funds for the construction of their own modest building. It goes without saying that a lot of hard work went into the dream. But we never dared to hope that we would be able to count on so much support. Agreed, we have achieved a lot in the past 30 years. The two largest Belgian astronomy and space fairs ever were ours. Dozens of exhibitions were realised. And literally hundreds of courses, workshops, lectures and viewing evenings were organised. And that has not escaped the notice of the former city council of Ostend…
Originally, our target was our own modest building (64 m²) on the edge of the city, equipped with one small dome. But everything suddenly accelerated because of the opportunity to participate in the ‘Master Trial 2014’, an architectural competition organized by the Flemish Government. A professional jury, consisting of, among others, Mr. Peter Swinnen (Flemish Architect), approved our project, allowing us to call on an architect in the form of Mr. Pieter-Jan Peeters. Who in turn, through our project definition and with the support of city architect Lesley Sanders, drew up a beautiful design. Which made the project bigger and more professional…
In the meantime, we have renamed our association to Astropolis vzw, the new operation has been carefully developed, the building has been completely finished and we have succeeded in raising the most funds. Finally, after more than thirty years of volunteer work, we can finally unveil Astropolis, the ‘Space Science Center’, where everyone, regardless of age or prior knowledge, can enjoy the wonderful world of astronomy and space travel !
