In Kosovo, a new public observatory opens eyes — and hearts

On June 15, I traveled to the Balkan nation of Kosovo to put in a 14-inch telescope donated by Celestron to that younger nation’s new nationwide observatory and planetarium. The set up of this telescope was a historic event, marking the completion of Kosovo’s first nationwide observatory. The ability has huge potential to domesticate and harness the Kosovar public’s enthusiasm for astronomy and the night time sky.

However though I got here to Kosovo to help with an astronomy training venture, I’m the one who acquired the true lesson — and it was not about astronomy. Over the subsequent 5 days I found an incredible, pleasant nation the place the individuals are industrious, hard-working, inquisitive, and curious in regards to the universe round us.

I additionally discovered that Kosovars maintain People in excessive regard and are particularly appreciative of American army veterans, of which I’m one. It was the U.S.-led NATO liberation of Kosovo that earned America a particular place within the hearts of Kosovars.

For all of those causes, I by no means felt extra welcomed far, removed from residence, as I did in Kosovo, and echoes of the Kosovar soul resonated in all places we went.

A star is born

The seeds of this journey had been planted 10 years in the past when Pranvera Hyseni, a highschool woman in Kosovo, harnessed the inquisitiveness and ingenuity of her fellow younger Kosovars and established the Astronomy Outreach of Kosovo, now recognized worldwide as “AOK”.

Pranvera mastered the usage of social media and caught the eye of astronomers all around the globe. Her enthusiasm and ambition pushed AOK to such heights that the group receives astronomy tools donations from all world wide, and its emblem flies aboard the Worldwide Area Station. When AOK held a public star get together, it was common for tons of of individuals to point out up in a city sq. to view the Solar or the Moon and planets.

I used to be so impressed with Pranvera’s astronomy outreach efforts that when she turned 21, I invited her to the USA to talk on the Texas Star Occasion in 2017. Pranvera’s drive and willpower shone brilliantly when she parlayed the talking invitation right into a four-month keep the place she visited dozens of astronomy organizations. Her efforts culminated the subsequent yr when she was accepted into the planetary sciences grasp’s diploma program on the College of California at Santa Cruz. Upon finishing her masters, Pranvera was accepted right into a doctorate program on the similar college the place she now conducts analysis on meteorites and asteroids.

All through her newbie {and professional} astronomy profession, Pranvera by no means misplaced her love for her residence nation and the outreach work of AOK. So robust is Pranvera’s ardour for outreach that I brazenly promote her as the subsequent Carl Sagan.

After years of proposals to the Kosovar authorities, Pranvera’s purpose of creating a nationwide observatory and planetarium in Kosovo was lastly realized. In a case of goals assembly potentialities, floor was damaged for the ability final yr. Celestron provided the C14 telescope to be put in beneath the ability’s 23-foot (7 meters) dome. To my shock, I used to be requested by Celestron to journey to Kosovo to put in and fee the instrument. Thus, seven years after I invited Pranvera to the U.S., life turned full circle, and I discovered myself touring to Pranvera’s residence nation.

Seeing first mild

I flew 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) to Istanbul to hook up with a flight to Pristina, the Kosovar capital. Pristina is a quickly rising metropolis the place I noticed 20 development cranes pushing town skyward. Although I used to be removed from residence, there have been acquainted sights: KFC and Burger King eating places are prevalent and far of the industrial signage is in English.

I used to be not alone on this incredible voyage. A global gathering assembled in Pristina to attend the grand opening of Kosovo’s Nationwide Observatory and Planetarium. Ben Hauck, Kevin Kawai, and I carried the Celestron flag. The College of California at Santa Cruz was represented by Miriam Telus, Pranvera’s PhD advisor, and Raja Guha Thakurta, head of the astronomy division.  The American contingent included James Wehner and Keith Hammons, longtime mates of Pranvera; Diana Hannikainen, senior editor at Sky and Telescope; Terry Watson, an Apollo 13 flight controller; and Stephen Ramsden, head of the Charlie Bates Photo voltaic Astronomy Undertaking and a serious donor to AOK. We had been additionally joined by many mates within the European astronomy neighborhood from Switzerland and Italy.

The bodily set up of the C-14 was easy. On Monday morning, I and one other AOK member positioned north utilizing a compass app on our telephones. After each telephones agreed, Orhan Sopa, the observatory’s chief engineer and I drilled holes into the highest of the remoted 36-centimeter-wide concrete pier to put in the mounting studs for a Starizona CGX-L pier adapter. After mounting the C-14 atop the pier, it was time to polar-align the mount after sunset.

After nightfall, a number of makes an attempt to carry out a fast solar-system object alignment on the Moon to permit a basic “first mild” ceremony proved irritating. As the celebs got here out, the reason for the repeated alignment failure turned obvious. The polar axis was pointing 35 levels west of Polaris. It turned out the observatory dome was made solely of metal, and it adversely magnetically affected the pointing of our compasses, guiding them 35 levels west of true north.

After utilizing Polaris to mark the placement of true north on the observatory wall, the telescope was demounted the subsequent day and new studs put in within the concrete pier. That night time, polar alignment was profitable and official “first mild” displayed M57, the Ring Nebula, in grand model, regardless of a near-Full Moon. An emotional Pranvera seemed via the eyepiece and noticed the conclusion of her and AOK’s years-long dream coming true. Kosovo now had a working observatory and planetarium.

A nationwide celebration

On Wednesday morning, June 19, Stephen Ramsden and I appeared on a half-hour morning talk show on KLAN TV in Pristina the place we had been interviewed about our impressions of Kosovo and the observatory. AOK board member Bujar Mehmeti, a Ph.D. candidate in medical physics on the College of Wisconsin-Madison, offered flawless translation into Albanian.

At midmorning Wednesday, your complete group of international guests and the AOK board had been invited to an viewers with Glauk Konjufca, the president of the Kosovar parliament, a place equal to the U.S. speaker of the Home. The younger president spoke with us in excellent English in regards to the significance of training and scientific literacy for the longer term prosperity of Kosovo.

The official observatory grand opening ceremonies had been held on Wednesday afternoon. In attendance had been Arberie Nagavci, the Kosovo Minister of Training, and Qemajl Aliu, the mayor of the city of Shtime the place the observatory was positioned. A number of hundred curious and enthusiastic folks attended the ceremony regardless of unseasonably excessive temperatures. The ceremony was preceded by the nationwide anthems of each Kosovo and the USA adopted by remarks by the training minister, the mayor, the board of AOK, myself and Kevin Kawai representing Celestron, Stephen Ramsden, and Pranvera herself. She delivered an impassioned outpouring of gratitude for all who had supported AOK and the observatory venture from its beginnings as a mere dream to the ability being celebrated by the enthusiastic crowd.

I discussed the outpouring of gratitude towards the USA by the residents of Kosovo. This was proven to such a level that throughout the ceremony there have been tears in my eyes when “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed together with the Kosovar anthem. I used to be so moved that I forgot what I used to be going to say and needed to improvise a speech on the spot with tears in my eyes.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a large pizza get together within the a lot cooler planetarium show space was adopted by solar observing on the planetarium’s rooftop remark deck and excursions of the observatory and planetarium. Regardless of record-high warmth for the area, tons of of smiles proved everybody was thrilled with the ability and the promise that it holds. Sadly, hazy circumstances prevented public remark that night time.

Thursday morning’s spotlight was a go to with Aliu, the mayor of Shtime, the place he acknowledged the significance of municipal assist for the brand new Kosovar science facility positioned outdoors the city.

Thursday afternoon was full of astronomical shows within the planetarium’s lecture corridor by the worldwide guests. I led the schedule with a presentation in regards to the Moon, adopted by a various array of matters, together with meteorites, astrophysics, and space-based observatories. A whole lot extra guests flooded the planetarium, anxious for a take a look at the C14 telescope and a planetarium present.

Scars of conflict

On Friday we had been free to discover Kosovo itself. Right here is the place the depth of Kosovo’s love of the USA sank in. American flags are extensively displayed side-by-side with the Kosovar flag. Main streets in Pristina are named after President Invoice Clinton; his secretary of state, Madeline Albright; and Senator Bob Dole. All these people performed a key position within the American intervention that prevented the Serbs from performing an entire genocide on the Kosovar folks.

We visited the tomb of Adem Jashari, the nationwide hero who initially led the battle for Kosovar independence from Serbia till he and his whole prolonged household of 59 males, girls, and kids had been slaughtered by a Serbian assault in 1999. Fifty-nine white marble tombs with an everlasting guard maintain the stays of the Jashari household in a memorial hauntingly just like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in Virginia.

The extent of the Serbian atrocities inflicted on Kosovo had been hammered residence after we found that one of many many acts of genocide had occurred in Pranvera’s residence village of Vushtrri. Right here, 250 residents had been gunned down by Serbian troopers. Among the many lifeless was Pranvera’s grandfather.

It was throughout the freeway from the Jashari memorial that I skilled my most heart-wrenching show of pure gratitude to the United Stares from the residents of Kosovo. A bunch of individuals had been seated at a refreshment stand and acknowledged us as People from our speech. They pleaded with us to affix them and permit them to buy our meal, however sadly we couldn’t keep lengthy as we had dinner plans with Pranvera’s dad and mom on the household farm.

However what introduced tears to my eyes was a Kosovar military veteran seated with them. He had been shot throughout the conflict, leaving his face so badly disfigured by the bullet that his mouth was offset to the left facet of his face. When he heard I used to be a U.S. army veteran, he stood up, positioned his hand over his coronary heart, bowed deeply to me, and sobbed as he thanked me as an American for saving him and his nation. Phrases can not describe how I felt as this military veteran who fought within the conflict and bore horrible scars from the ordeal was thanking me for America’s assist in a conflict that was lengthy after my very own service in Vietnam.

Classes from Kosovo

My week in Kosovo began as an astronomy mission however ended as a shocking lesson in regards to the freedoms and alternatives we now have right here in the USA that so many individuals take with no consideration. Kosovo is a Muslim nation however infused with an unlimited live-and-let-live tradition of tolerance and acceptance of western methods. It is usually a younger nation: The inhabitants, after the conflict, averages about 30 years previous and they’re motivated like no different folks I’ve not too long ago encountered. Younger Kosovars embrace western tradition whereas retaining their Kosovo roots. And there are as many younger ladies in AOK as there are boys.

Fantastic issues are occurring in Kosovo, and I really feel terribly privileged not solely to have visited this stunning and dynamic nation, however to be a small a part of an endeavor that may unfold science and astronomy throughout this younger and creating nation. It’s uncommon that I really feel I’ve seen one thing really extraordinary, and through my week in Kosovo, I did.