At the initiative of the then President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, In the city of Córdoba, on October 14, 1870, work began to create the first observatory in Argentina. One year and 10 days later, On October 24, 1871, the first Astronomical Observatory of the Country was formally inaugurated and hence the Day of Astronomy.
The initial work, as they commented, was a modest observatory that contained a place for the instruments, the offices of the director, employees and a place for the calculators. But its construction put our country at the forefront in science. The direction of the observatory was in charge of the American astronomer Benjamin A Gold, who was a friend of Sarmiento, at the time he served as ambassador of the United States.
Happy Astronomy day in Argentina!
On October 24 we celebrate the National Astronomy Day commemorating the inauguration, in 1871, of the first astronomical center in the country, the Argentine National Observatory, today the Astronomical Observatory of Córdoba (Univ. Nac. de Córdoba). pic.twitter.com/BziqbJd9od— Argentine Association of Astronomy (@AstronomiaAr) October 24, 2022
It is worth mentioning that in 1955 the building was declared a Historic Monument of Argentina and has four domes, the northeast one houses the equatorial telescope that is used for observing the sky during guided tours; the northwest contains the astrographic telescope, not currently used, but only as a piece belonging to the museum; the southeast dome, with a 20-inch Celestron telescope for students, and the south central one, which was refurbished for the operation of a new planetarium.
Currently in the country there are 16 observatories throughout the region. But we owe the date of this anniversary to the first of all in the city of Córdoba that was inaugurated on a day like today.
