Abstract
THE dedication of the Mexican National Astrophysical Observatory at Tonanzintla in February last has been marked by the issue by the Mexican Government of a series of six postage stamps devoted entirely to astronomical subjects. The 2c., 5c., 10c., 20c., and 40c stamps depict respectively the dark nebula in Orion, the solar corona as seen at a total eclipse, the open spiral nebula in Canes Venatici, the edge-on spiral nebula NGC 4594, showing absorption in the central plane, and the ring nebula in Lyra. The 1 peso stamp, departing from the principle of showing spectacular objects such as these, is an experiment which must surely be unique in philately ; it depicts the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram connecting stellar luminosity with spectral type, with the main sequence, the giants, the supergiants and the white dwarfs all duly labelled. The significance of this diagram will certainly escape all but those fairly well grounded in astronomy, but the ordinary user of the stamps of lower denominations cannot fail to be impressed by the grandeur of the objects shown.
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Astronomy on Postage Stamps. Nature 150, 229 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150229b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150229b0