Colombia - 20,000 pesos oro

Colombia - 20,000 pesos oro - 2005 - P454

This beautiful 20,000 pesos oro note from Colombia shows the astronomer Julio Garavito Armero (1865 – 1920). In 1892 he became the director of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional de Colombia (the National Astronomical Observatory) in Bogotá (which can be seen on this banknote from Colombia). As an astronomer of the observatory, he did many useful scientific investigations such as calculating the latitude of Bogotá, studies about the comets which passed by the Earth between 1901 and 1910 (such as Comet Halley) and the 1916 solar eclipse (seen in the majority of Colombia). But perhaps the most important were his studies about celestial mechanics, which finally turned into studies about lunar fluctuations and their influence on weather, floods, polar ice and the Earthorbital acceleration. The International Astronomical Union named a lunar crater after him, the Garavito crater.

The Moon can be seen on the front of the note next to a portrait of Armero. On the back is an image of Earth as it is seen from the surface of the Moon.

Steven Friday 06 December 2013 at 1:36 pm | | space
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