Edmond Halley
Edmond Halley (1656–1742) was an
English astronomer best known for his prediction, published in
1705, of the return of the comet that is now named after him.
He had previously produced the first telescopic catalogue of
the southern stars while in his early twenties, and
collaborated with Isaac Newton on the publication of the Principia in the
1680s. In 1718 Halley discovered the proper motion of several
bright stars by comparing their modern positions with those in
ancient catalogues. Hence much of his greatest work had already
been done when he was appointed Britain’s second
Astronomer Royal in 1720, a post which he filled until his
death in 1742. He also made fundamental contributions to
geophysics.
The return of Halley’s Comet in
1985–86 produced a flood of stamps depicting Halley, but
prior to that he had featured on only one issue, from St
Helena, shown below.
St Helena, 1977
While still a student at Oxford University,
Halley began to observe with the newly appointed Astronomer
Royal at Greenwich, John Flamsteed, as a result of which he
formed the ambition to map the southern stars below the horizon
from Greenwich. Without bothering to take his degree, Halley
sailed in 1676 for the British-owned island of St Helena in the
South Atlantic ocean. There he produced a catalogue of 341
stars which he published on his return to England in 1678,
along with a chart of the southern heavens.
On the 300th anniversary of his trip to St
Helena, the island issued the three stamps above. The 5p value
shows Halley’s comet as it appeared on the Bayeux
Tapestry. The 8p stamp shows what is described as a
“typical late 17th-century sextant”, equipped with
telescopic sights, of the kind which Halley and his assistant
used to measure the angular distances between pairs of stars.
The 27p stamp shows Halley in front of Halley’s Mount, a
peak on one of the island’s central ridges where he set
up his observatory.
Stanley Gibbons nos. 335–337
St Helena, 1986
St Helena returned to the theme of
Halley’s visit for their Halley’s Comet set in
1986. The 9p stamp depicts the plaque where Halley had his
observatory – the wording on the plaque says “The
site of the observatory of Edmond Halley. He came to catalogue
the stars of the southern hemisphere 1677–1678”.
The 20p stamp shows Halley’s chart of the southern stars,
including the now-defunct constellation Robur Carolinum,
Charles’s Oak, which he invented to honour King Charles
II.
Two other members of the set, not shown
here, depicted Halley himself and the ship Unity on which he
sailed to the island in 1676.
Stanley Gibbons nos. 482, 484 (nos. 483 and
485 not shown)