Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Juan M. Thome, Argentine Astronomer from the Quaker State

1971; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/174680

2162-2736

John E. Hodge,

Historical and Literary Analyses

The founding of the Argentine National Observatory and much of its later development were the results of unusual inter-American cooperation. In 1870 the noted American astronomer Benjamin Apthorp Gould had realized his dream of inaugurating a major observatory in Argentina in order to extend to the Southern Hemisphere the kind of detailed examination of the stars already undertaken by the great observatories of the Northern Hemisphere. After a few false starts Gould was able to begin work in Córdoba thanks to the enthusiasm of President Domingo F. Sarmiento and the wholehearted support of his minister of public instruction, Nicolás Avellaneda. The Argentine government appropriated funds for the construction of an observatory and the purchase of a modest but adequate inventory of instruments.