The founder
Ola Smedstuen
Founder of the association that runs the Haagaar Observatory. The main character behind it all. A tireless enthusiast who has worked hard all these years to keep the association and observatory alive. A fabulous storyteller and speaker who teaches school classes and other groups who come to learn about astronomy and telescopes.
Even these days, he takes part in observatory work and contributes to the modernization of the observatory, even though he has passed 70 years of age.
Ola looks through the solar telescope.
Photo: Svenn Erik Hoylie
Ola with Bjørn Langfjæran to the Right and Ivar Mediås in the middle.
Photo: Svenn Erik Hoylie
The former times…
Here we have Ola from the start at Gjovik Gymnasium around 1980. Here he pays his dues with joy!
At the end of the 80s, he built the old dome, which lasted for a full 30 years before it had to be replaced. It was built at the car workshop in Thomasdalen that he and his father ran at the time. It stood there for months and took up space, prioritized at the front for paying customers…!
There would have been no observatory if it wasn’t for such a self-sacrificing guy like Ola.
The wine collector
In addition to being a walking encyclopedia about the universe, he is also an avid wine collector and is probably an equally large encyclopedia on that topic. In the cellar he has an impressive collection of wine with record keeping and all. And surely he doesn’t have a whole room with a replica of a French wine region with a working railway and gondolas and such…!
In other words, a knowledgeable person who knows a lot about a lot of things, and who really surpasses most people when it comes to standing up for their interests…! All you have to do is take off your hat!
Photo: Illustration AI-generated of 13nuta