Sunday Stamps - space and astronomy

This 8 cent stamp celebrating the Decade of Achievement for Space was issued in 1971. It was part of a se-tenant and this one depicts the Lunar Rover. Originally issued to co-incide with the flight of Apollo XV and to mark the 10th anniversary of John Glenn's Project Mercury flight that sent the first man into orbit.

and let's not forget the Canadarm, Canada's contribution to NASA's shuttle program, which was retired in 2011 after 30 years and 90 flights. The Canadarm weighs 905lbs and is 50' long with 6 joints (degrees of freedom). This stamp is one of a series showing the flag in 'conspicuous and not so conspicuous places'. (the stylized O references the opening line of the national anthem O Canada....)

Did anyone else spend time watching that small black dot of Venus move across the sun last Tuesday? You can thank this gentleman for enlightening us with his observations of the solar system back in the 1860s.

Among Schiaparelli's contributions are his telescopic observations of Mars. In his initial observations, he named the "seas" and "continents" of Mars. He called the linear lines he saw 'canali' which was mistranslated as 'canal' resulting in years of speculation over a supposed life on mars.

Before he had a powerful enough telescope to study the surfaces of planets, he watched meteors and comets and showed that they moved in the same orbit and that there were annual showers of 'shooting stars' caused by the dissolving of comets. So raise a glass to Schiaparelli, next time while watching the Perseids and Leonids meteor showers.

see more stars at Viridian's Postcard Blog