2007 The Sky at Night set
The 50th anniversary of Patrick Moore’s BBC TV programme The Sky at Night was commemorated by a set of six colourful
and attractive stamps released in 2007 February. Designed by Dick Davis, their
face values and subjects are as follows:
• 1st class, Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009), a planetary nebula in Aquarius,
photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 1st class, Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), a planetary nebula in Gemini, photographed
by the Hubble Space Telescope.
• 50p, Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), a planetary nebula in Draco, photographed by the Hubble
Space Telescope.
• 50p, Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a planetary nebula in Aquarius, in a composite
image from Hubble and ground-based telescopes.
• 72p, Flaming Star Nebula, an emission nebula in Auriga lit up by the hot blue
star AE Aurigae, taken by the American amateur Robert Gendler.
• 72p, Spindle Galaxy (NGC 3115), a lenticular galaxy in Sextans, taken by the
American professional John Kormendy.
Superimposed on each image is an outline of the home constellation with the
location of the object marked. All objects are identified with a number
beginning with the letter C, which is their reference in Patrick’s own-brand Caldwell Catalogue (his full surname being Caldwell-Moore). Other
deep-sky objects on the stamps bear their more usual M numbers from Charles
Messier’s historic catalogue.
The stamps are self-adhesive, and text on the backing paper describes the object
shown (see above). The was the first time that the Royal Mail had printed on
the back of self-adhesive stamps.
As with the 2002 Astronomy sheet, the tribute could be considered flawed by the fact that none of the images is
from British telescopes or British astronomers. Given all that The Sky at Night
has done to support British astronomy over the past half century, this was a
dismaying choice and a missed opportunity to showcase British achievements.
PS: Royal Mail narrowly avoided an embarrassing error on the 72p Flaming Star
Nebula stamp. In the original designs released for publicity purposes in 2006
November, M36 and M38 were incorrectly labelled M136 and M138 (see below). I am sure I was not the only one to contact Royal Mail to point this out. A
hasty redesign saved the day. Royal Mail have never admitted whether they had
started printing before the error was caught.
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Stanley Gibbons nos. 2709–2714