Serbia 2023 "100 years of the Milankovich calendar"

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Issue Date	21.11.2023
ID	Michel: , Scott: , Category: Ot
Design	artist: Boban Savich consultant: Svetozar Markovich from University Library in Belgrade
Stamps in set	1
Value	RSD120 - Astronomer: Milutin Milankovich
Emission/Type	commemorative
Issue place	Belgrade (Beograd)
Size (width x height)	stamp: 35mm x 49.5mm, Souvenir-Sheet: 85mm x 80mm
Layout	Souvenir-Sheet of 1 stamp
Products	FDC x1
Paper
Perforation
Print Technique	Offset, lithography
Printed by	Forum
Quantity	10.000
Issuing Authority	Serbian Post

On November 21^st, 2023, the Post Authority of Serbia issued the Souvenir-Sheet "100 years of the Milankovich calendar".

The following text was published by Serbian Post on the reverse side of the FDC and their online store:

The first stamp of Milutin Milankovich was issued in Yugoslavia in 1979 to commemorate his 100 anniversary, MiNr.: 1793, Scott: 1432.

Milutin Milankovich (Dalj, May 28, 1879 – Belgrade, December 12, 1958) was a civil engineer, mathematician, astronomer, climatologist and popularizer of science. Full professor of celestial mechanics, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, director of the Astronomical Observatory in Belgrade and vice president of SASA, he was remembered in the history of science, first of all, for his theory about changes in the Earth's climate over a long period of time, known as Milankovich cycles, as well as the reform of the Julian calendar.
Rejecting a very lucrative career as a construction engineer in Vienna, Milankovich came to Belgrade on a modest salary as a university professor for patriotic reasons and out of love for science. He is our greatest scientist who built his career in Serbia.
The reform of the Julian calendar, proposed by Milutin Milankovich in 1923, is based on the idea of abolishing the date difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, as well as calculating leap years in the future in a specific way that ensures much greater precision of this calendar compared to the Gregorian one.
Based on very complex mathematical calculations, Milankovich proposed the most accurate calendar up to that time, which has not been surpassed to this day. Milankovich 's scientific work on the theory of climate change and the alignment of the calendar with astronomical events speak best of his commitment to science and precision in the study of astronomical and climatic changes over long time intervals.

Beside the calendar, Milankovitch showed how the Earth's surface temperature was sensitive to changes in the Earth's orbit and tied it to several orbital parameters - the tilt of the Earth's axis, the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, and the precession of the Earth's axis. Each of these three parameters change over set frequencies - and geologists have used his model to look at paleoclimate through time.
Milankovitch's works on astronomical explanations of ice ages, especially his curve of insolation for the past 130,000 years, received support from the climatologist Wladimir Köppen and from the geophysicist Alfred Wegener. Köppen noted the usefulness of Milankovitch's theory for paleoclimatological researchers. Milankovitch received a letter on 22 September 1922 from Köppen, who asked him to expand his studies from 130,000 years to 600,000 years.

Products and associated philatelic items

FDC	Example of Circulated Cover

References:

• [R1] Technical details: Colnect.
• [R2] Milutin Milankovich: reverse side of official FDC, Wikipedia.

Acknowledgements:

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for the draft page review and his very valuable comments.

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