Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Astronomy Stamps from the Isle of Man

The Post Office for the ISLE OF MAN, a small island belonging to the United Kingdom in the Irish Sea, recently printed four stamps (link to Isle of Man Post Office) with five constellations total: Andromeda and Pegasus on one stamp, and Cygnus, Leo, and Orion on the other three. As the website shows, there are various types of stamp sets available. Why were these nifty stamps produced? Isle of Man Post Office produced them in commemoration of having 26 Dark Sky Discovery Sites, places throughout the United Kingdom where astronomers and stargazers can see the night sky away from light pollution. The Dark Sky Discovery website has a Google Map showing all sites in the UK suitable for stargazing.

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Blog Background

The background has three Hubble Space Telescope images:

— LH 95 is a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Dorado constellation.

— Ant Nebula (also called Menzel 3) is an aptly-named planetary nebula located in the constellation Norma.

— Egg Nebula (also called CL 2688) is a protoplanetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus.