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| Issuer | Royal Australian Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 2009 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1966-date) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold depiction of the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope dish dominates the field, shown at an angle with its support structure and base building rendered in fine detail at lower right. Multiple four-pointed stars are scattered across the upper field to evoke the night sky, with the Moon depicted as a circular orb to the left of the dish. The curved legend OBSERVATORIES arcs across the upper portion of the field in stylised lettering, with the secondary inscription CSIRO PARKES TELESCOPE below it. The Perth Mint mintmark P appears at lower right, adjacent to the telescope base. |
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| Reverse lettering | observatories CSIRO PARKES TELESCOPE P EM |
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| Additional information |
The 2009 Australian dollar Observatories series marked the International Year of Astronomy, declared by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope for systematic celestial observation. Australia had particular cause to participate — the country's geographic position in the southern hemisphere gave its observatories, particularly Siding Spring in New South Wales, access to portions of the sky permanently invisible to European and North American instruments.
KM#1259 is one of several reverses issued across the series, each featuring a different observatory site.