Central Lithuania 1921 – Poczobut
Observatory
The first astro-stamp of the 20th century
comes from Central Lithuania, a small state with a short and
troubled history. It consisted of an area in the southeast part
of Lithuania around the city of Vilnius which was seized by the
Poles in 1920 and given the name Central Lithuania (in Polish,
Srodkowa Litwa). It issued fewer than 50 recognized stamps in
1920–22 before being absorbed by Poland. The area
eventually transferred back to Lithuania in 1939.
This stamp from 1921 depicts Poczobut
Observatory on top of the main Vilnius University building.
Founded in 1753, it was the fourth observatory in Europe and
the oldest in Eastern Europe (and was also the first
observatory to appear on a stamp). The observatory is named
after Martin Poczobut (1728–1810) who became its director
in 1764, serving for 44 years. His positional measurements of
Mercury were used by the French astronomer J.J. de Lalande to
compute that planet’s orbit. Poczobut is also of note for
having invented the constellation Poniatowski’s Bull,
composed of stars in Ophiuchus and honouring King Stanislaus
Poniatowski of Poland. The constellation was not generally
adopted, and has long since vanished from maps of the sky. For
a modern picture of the observatory, and more about Poczobut,
click here.
The stamp comes in two versions, perforated
and imperforate; the imperforate stamps were evidently cut from
a sheet by scissors, as in the example above.
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