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| Long before the invention of the telescope, people
of ancient civilizations observed, cataloged and named visible, bright
objects in the sky: planets, stars, comets, and
constellations -- groups of stars seemingly always occurring together
in the same spatial configuration, and recurring year after year with
the seasons. Along the ecliptic, the plane of the earth's orbit around
the sun (or the apparent motion of the sun among the stars for an observer
on earth), twelve constellations are observed which give the names assigned
to them in antiquity to the signs of the Zodiac, probably by the Mesopotamians
two millennia BC. By "fleshing out" the shape of a bear, bull, or ram
around the major stars in a constellation, ancient observers populated
the heavens with creatures and objects more meaningful to the mortal imagination
than these actual random groupings of stars many lightyears apart . The
recognition of constellations as such by an observer makes it easier to
locate other celestial objects like planets, comets, or distant galaxies
within the constellation's area against the sphere of fixed stars. Swedish Post issued this interesting booklet of stamps showing constellations of the zodiac inside images of their mythological bodies. Issued without denomination, each triangular stamp covers the minimum domestic letter rate. Constellations that appear on other stamps on these pages are the following: Omega, Orion, Leo, Cygnus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and the Pleiades. |
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| In the northern hemisphere voyages of exploration
and trade were undertaken initially without the aid of compass or maps.
Ancient mariners sailed usually within sight of land, which was possible
around the Mediterranean, and in the Baltic Sea. Added directional help
came from the Pole Star, Polaris, so called because it is near the north
celestial pole. The elevation of this star over the horizon provided a
measure of latitude; the higher Polaris, the more northerly the location.
Polaris is also known as the Lodestar, as associated with a lodestone.
This naturally occurring magnetic material could be used to make a primitive
compass by magnetizing iron needles, which, when freely suspended, would
align themselves with the magnetic field of the earth and point northward. The Faroes Island stamp shows a Viking ship and the constellations Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper). Polaris is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper, or in the tail of the small Bear. |
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In the absence of telescopes, ancient observatories were necessarily large in order to afford the naked eye observer a chance to detect small changes in the locations of celestial bodies. The Mayans and even earlier the Babylonians made astronomical observations, the Egyptians had a calendar based on movements of the sun. Stonehenge, a series of large concentric stone circles in England, is believed to be an observatory built between 1000 and 3000 years BC. The monolithic structures that remain are shown in the British stamp at left, which also contains a vignette of stellar navigation similar to the Faroe stamp above. |
  
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Giant telescopes such as at Mt. Palomar and radio telescopes at Joddrell Bank in England, at Nancay in France, and the Arecibo 305 Meter Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico, now explore space far beyond the universe imagined by Copernicus and Kepler. But with the deployment of satellite-launched telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope above at right, astronomy has taken an even greater leap forward. No longer limited by absorption of light by atmospheric molecules, distortions due to dust and the glare of earthly lights, telescopes can now explore all kinds of radiation emitted from deep in the galaxy and beyond. We are no longer limited to the visible spectrum impinging on our retinas as our surrogate detectors record bursts of x rays and gamma rays from exploding stars. The splendid set of German semi-postal stamps of 1999 depicts the Cosmos and presents the cutting edge in astronomical observation. Three Max Planck Institutes in Germany produced the photos on which the stamps are based. The first shows the Andromeda nebula in the spectrum of 6 cm radiowaves, with a picture of this galaxy in visible light in the background. Next, there is a section of the Milky Way at 11 cm wavelength in Cygnus, including a background picture of the constellation from Uranographia, Bode's stellar atlas of 1801, the last of its kind. Then there are the remains of a supernova in Vela, taken with the X-Ray Telescope ROSAT orbiting the earth. The dramatic collision of fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter were documented from the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain with the infrared MAGIC camera. The successive shots were made into a video clip which in turn was used to produce the hologram. On the right of the picture the planet Io is disappearing, while the impact explosion is at the bottom of the planetary disk. Cooperation with NASA on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory led to a view of the whole sky in gamma radiation (last stamp). The CGRO is also pictured, as is a section of the Milky Way in the background. The addition of holograms on two of these stamps seems like a bit of overkill or icing on the cake, depending on your point of view... |
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The centenary of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory was the occasion for the issue at left, in 1978. It shows a huge reflector pointing through the opening of the dome in the direction of the constellation Orion which is, with the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, one of the most distinctive constellations in the northern sky. The left shoulder of the great hunter is marked by the supergiant red star Betelgeuse, which is so large that it would encompass the solar system including the orbit of Mars. A whimsical feature of this stamp is that Betelgeuse is actually shown as red, not distinguishable as such on this page, but check the enlargement at http://www.hps.hokudai.ac.jp/hsci/stamps/1878a-e.htm. |
| Images of galaxies and nebulae taken with the Hubble telescope
appear below on a set issued by the USPS. Each stamp bears a brief description on the back: Eagle nebula: a dramatic region of star formation featuring pillars of dust and gas Ring nebula: a barrel of gas cut off by a dying star similar to our sun Lagoon nebula: a cradle of star formation with giant clouds of dusty gas Egg nebula: beams of light from a dying sun-like star emerging from a dark dust cloud Galaxy NGC1316: the aftermath of a collision between two galaxies is shown here, with the remains of the smaller one drifting before the glowing core of NGC 1316.
The Hubble telescope also produced this spectacular image of the planet Saturn, which is featured on a British stamp that was part of their Millenium series. 
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As we see in this chapter, photographs or radiographs now appear regularly on stamps instead of artists' conceptions of astronomical objects. Perhaps the earliest such photographic records are on the beautiful 1942 set from Mexico, issued on the occasion of the inauguration of the astrophysical observatory in Tonanzintla that year. They are, in order: the Horsehead Nebula in Orion; a total solar eclipse; the beautiful spiral galaxy M51in Canes Venatici, known as the Whirlpool Galaxy; spiral galaxy M104 in Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy; planetary nebula M57 in Lyra, the Ring Nebula (s.a. above in the US set of Hubble stamps). The set is completed with a stamp showing the Herzsprung-Russell diagram, which appears at the beginning of the previous chapter.  
 
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| Last Modified: 14 April 2005 mn URL: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/stamps/cosmo4.html Comments to: mnaylor@buffalo.edu Back to: Arts & Sciences Libraries © 1997, 2005 Maiken Naylor |
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