Editing Gerard Kuiper (section)

==Early life and education==
Kuiper, the son of a tailor in the village of [[Tuitjenhorn]] in [[North Holland]], had an early interest in astronomy. He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, allowing him to see with the naked eye [[Apparent magnitude|magnitude]] 7.5&nbsp;stars, about four times fainter than those visible to normal eyes.{{fact|date=November 2024}}

He studied at [[Leiden University]] in 1924, where at the time a very large number of astronomers had congregated. He befriended fellow students [[Bart Bok]] and [[Pieter Oosterhoff]], and was taught by [[Ejnar Hertzsprung]], [[Antonie Pannekoek]], [[Willem de Sitter]], [[Jan Woltjer (astronomer)|Jan Woltjer]], [[Jan Oort]], and the physicist [[Paul Ehrenfest]]. He received his [[Candidate (degree)|candidate degree]] in Astronomy in 1927 and continued straight on with his graduate studies.

Kuiper received his PhD degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands on his thesis on [[binary star]]s with Hertzsprung in 1933.