Named for Domingo F. Sarmiento, president of Argentina between 1868 and 1874 who promoted education, particularly in scientific fields, in his country. Born in San Juan, he grew to maturity in the province and knew the region where the El Leoncito Observatory now stands. With the aid of B. A. Gould he was responsible for founding the Córdoba Observatory, dedicating it with the words ‘it is said that an observatory is premature or superfluous for a rising country whose public treasury is exhausted or overburdened. But I say that we must renounce the rank of nation, or the title of civilized people, if we do not take our part in the progress and movement of the natural sciences’. (M 3938) _ _.