Stamp series celebrates SA's role in astronomy

An exceptional series of 11 stamps celebrating South Africa's role in astronomy was launched at SAASTA's Johannesburg Observatory on 5 June.

The stamps were designed by Marcus Neustetter, an artist with a special interest in astronomy who worked closely with the astronomy fraternity for this task. "The intention of the stamp artworks is to capture the intangible and magical elements of astronomy and to find a way to illustrate and translate this through visual interpretation," Marcus explained.

The sheet with all the stamps in the series depicting South Africa's role in astronomy.		Dr Jabu Nukeri, MD of SAASTA (left), receives a framed set of stamps from Janras Kotsi, Group Executive: Mail Business of the South African Post Office.

The beautiful stamps, which glitter with silver foiling applied to tiny elements with the aid of a very specialised process depict, among others, the Innes Telescope at the Johannesburg Observatory and the star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system, that was discovered by Innes while he worked at the Observatory.

The other stamps depict the 26 metre radio telescope at HartRAO; the SAAO headquarters where the Royal Observatory was established in 1828; the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in the Karoo landscape; SumbandilaSAT floating in front of an image captured by the satellite; the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7), the precursor telescope to the MeerKAT radio telescope; and telescopes at the SAAO site near Sutherland.

Added to this is a stamp that acknowledges the perspective and scientific insight made possible by South Africa's first satellite, SunSAT1; one that celebrates the recent establishment of the South African National Space Agency; one that acknowledges the achievements of astronomers; and one that celebrates indigenous knowledge of our night skies.

Marcus found creating designs for such small sizes intimidating and technically challenging. "However, I soon noticed that the small space and the attention to detail actually allows for more expression than I thought," he said. He included drawings, photographic imagery, stories and references to represent the ideas he discovered through his research for each of the stamps.

Artistic celebration of our astronomical achievements

"Once I started working on the stamps, simplifying concepts, reducing the detail and focusing on legibility and recognition, the challenges proved to be a valuable limitation that made me focus on the main intention of the stamps as artistic celebration of South Africa's astronomical achievements," Marcus added.

A stamp commemorating the transit of Venus on 5 and 6 June was launched on the same occasion.

Guests at the launch were treated to an experimental performance by Marcus in the 26 metre telescope dome, as well as star gazing, which was made possible by SAASTA and members of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.