The moment when the heart sent a signal
In the Nevėžio valley, washed away by the river that flowed here a few hundred years ago, the Šatkauskai homestead is located today. Here – the sound of wind chimes, the sweet aroma of roses that have spread their petals, a garden with hundreds of fruit trees, included in the heritage gardens of Lithuania, and the goats who look after it, known as gardeners.
Simas and Vida, who were born in Klaipėda, lived in Kaunas, and have lived together for more than thirty years, found their place here. Although the homestead didn’t look like it did then, seeing it, as Sims recalls, “made something ring in my heart.”
“It’s a dark sky, the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are clearly visible. Kaunas district begins beyond the stream – we didn’t feel like we were living in Kėdainiai. Only later did we find out that we are in the Kėdainiai district,” said Simas.
The wonderful creations of the universe are mentioned for a reason – a man who studied political science has been interested in astronomy since the second grade. A man calls this science his passion.
“When I lived in Kaunas, I had a telescope that weighed 17 kilograms – a heavy enough thing to constantly pull. We lived in a nine-story building, we used to climb on its roof to watch the sky. And I used to drive myself to places where the sky was dark,” recalls Sims.
After moving to Gailiakaimi, the family didn’t get used to the telescope right away – at first, the Šatkauskais immersed themselves in economic activities, raising livestock. As Vida says, only after some time did the thought come to her that, using the telescope and the knowledge accumulated by her husband, it is possible to do this and that.
There are two special astro nights during the year
The first rudiments of the observatory began to appear in 2018 – then the family installed an observation hall in one of the rooms of the house, and invited schoolchildren to come.
“Later they started inviting us, because we couldn’t accept many – only about 20 students. We went to schools and started writing programs for the Culture Passport. We still work with schools, but we already have an observatory in the homestead. Simo is the entire astronomy reference book, and my work is communication, social networks,” said Vida about the behind-the-scenes work.
Shatkauskas are happy that they were able to establish the observatory with their own funds, but they do not hide that this work requires large investments. However, the result pays off.
It is true that when imagining an observatory, images of night, clear sky and stars come to mind for visitors in most cases. However, this is not quite the exact concept of the evening recreation programs, as Vida calls them, carried out at the “Observatory of Loud Silence”. Here, the stars are observed using an electronic telescope.
“You can’t call a person and promise them that it will be clear that night and show the sky directly through the telescope. We are trying to educate that the electronic telescope is not omnipotent, it will not reach the stars through thick clouds, and you will not attach the eye to it like a visual one. There is a built-in astro camera, the image seen through it is shown on a large screen,” the woman described the concept.
The program, in which up to 40 people can participate, is created by Sims based on the prevailing time of the year, because every season the objects in the sky are different.
“The sky is changing. In spring there is one constellation, in summer – second, in autumn – third, in winter – also different. Therefore, there are four programs for all seasons.
If there is no clear sky, we show records prepared from earlier with an electronic telescope. We conduct live observations only when there is a clear sky,” said one of the founders of the observatory.
It is true that visitors can only participate in live observations twice a year – during the spring equinox at the end of March and during the autumn equinox at the end of September. Enthusiasts with their own telescopes also come to the observatory in Kėdainiai district.
Unraveled the myth existing in the ethnoculture
Although spring and autumn have the clearest skies, other seasons also have their advantages. Here in the summer, visitors are invited to take a meditative path of a thousand steps in the wonderful Šatkauskai garden. Some do it barefoot.
“Then you see all the beauty of the garden – you can approach, smell, take pictures, enjoy the rose water. This is not the case in winter, but in winter there is snow – we dig paths, decorate the observatory with glowing lights, light the altar, have heaters, serve hot tea and cookies. If there is a Christmas event, I make a non-alcoholic punch from homemade berries, which also adds charm,” said Vida.
Both couples and communities or collectives from various settlements choose to meet evenings shrouded in the mysteries of astronomy. True, Sims points out that it is necessary to find ways to present science in a way that is acceptable to visitors.
“There is a saying in ethnoculture that the sun is a mother and the moon is a father. It is wrong. Basically, we are all brothers and sisters, because the star that lived before the Sun gave the same stardust not only to us, but also to the Sun and the Earth. When you present science to a person from such an angle, then science becomes interesting for him,” said the man.
Sims smiles, remembering that sometimes there are such cases when, after several hours of programs, it turns out that one question remains unexplained to the visitors.
“There are times when you sit for two hours, point to the sky, tell about the connections between man and science, everyone listens with interest, and after the lecture someone asks, I have been interested in astrology since a few years ago. Of course, you don’t get angry – you understand that the person just mixed up the terms,” said one of the founders of the observatory about the fact that people sometimes confuse astrology with astronomy.
2024-08-17 22:03:36