Other people go to the planetarium or use a telescope.
If Frank Kaborn really wants to see a lot of stars, he just has to get out of his office and into the hall behind it.
Kaborn is head of metal production at the supplier Witte Niederberg in Wülfrath.
He doesn't get the stars from the sky, but from the machine - up to 30,000 times a month, 1000 times a day or more than 100 times an hour.
Since 1948, his company has been the exclusive supplier for Mercedes, producing the hood star – one of the most famous trademarks in Germany.
The star has shone over the luxury brand for more than 100 years. In addition to locomotion on land, on water and in the air, it also symbolizes the shine that Mercedes is supposed to emit.
But as uplifting as its effect may be, production begins in a very profane way: as bar stock on a wooden pallet in a draughty factory building.
First of all, there are only unadorned bars of the alloy Zamak, which consists of zinc, aluminum and copper.
76,000 kilograms per year are melted at 420 degrees and poured into one of the three molds, which are in constant use, at a pressure of 800 kilonewtons or 80 tons and a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
Cooled down within a few seconds, the stars fall out of the press at a rapid pace, land in unadorned lattice boxes and immediately begin their first journey.
Before further assembly, they have to be deburred by a production partner,
Star is not the same star
Back in Wülfrath and now stored on foam, they pass through the hands of four employees, some of whom have been reaching for the stars for more than 30 years.
Together with springs and bearings, they mount the stars on a foot and then check each one on a machine to see whether it can really be folded down with minimal effort to protect pedestrians.
In this way, 29 grams of zamak alloy for the star and 52 grams of spring steel, sheet metal and plastic for the foot, a total of twelve individual parts, are created as an internationally renowned symbol of luxury Made in Germany – not in Stuttgart, but in the provinces of the Rhineland.
De facto, the share of the star in the turnover of the plant in Wülfrath is only two percent, says Frank Kaborn,
and all in all, he only needs seven of the 430 colleagues at the site for the ten steps in production.
But for the pride of the workforce and the image of the company, the 20 million stars produced so far are worth much more than the door handles, locks and locking parts that Witte has in the portfolio.
Kaborn is standing in front of a showcase in which he has exhibited dozens of variations of the same logo.
A star is not just a star, he says, depending on the model and generation, the star was sometimes thicker or thinner, sometimes bigger or smaller - right down to the huge Pullman models, in which the star was one and a half times larger to match the imposing dimensions of the vehicles was big like today.
The diameter is now exactly 7.6 centimetres.
There are even more differences in the rosette that is placed around the base of the star: with a laurel wreath on a blue background, with a laurel wreath on a black background or without a laurel wreath with a separate plaque.
In China, the star is even allowed on the C-Class
In the meantime, another trademark has been added.
Since Mercedes has been building a Maybach again, the double M has been pressed here in addition to the star.
And even if the luxury models only make up a fraction of total production, Kaborn has a rough calculation ready: "In recent years we have produced more Maybach logos than there were in the brand's first life." Witte-Mann can do that Of course, we cannot console you for the fact that the star is apparently on the wane.
Even if Mercedes keeps reporting sales records, production in Wülfrath is steadily declining.
While there were 600,000 stars a year in the 1990s and 400,000 between 2008 and 2015, the number is now only 300,000.
And the trend continues to decline.
"More and more new cars have the star in the radiator and no longer on the hood," says Kaborn.
He has to leave this business to another supplier.
So far, this has only affected individual equipment variants, but with the new C-Class it has now affected an entire series for the first time.
But like many other managers, the plant manager is looking hopefully to China: there his stars are so valued that they will continue to be mounted on the C-Class.