Stamps Reach for the Stars

6 June 2007

Media Release

STAMPS REACH FOR THE STARS

The dazzling beauty of the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky is being captured in a new stamp series from New Zealand Post.

The Southern Skies series celebrates five stars of the stars – the constellations the Southern Cross, Pleiades, Trifid Nebula, Southern Pinwheel galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Most identifiable to New Zealanders, the Southern Cross constellation, which is on the country’s national flag, is featured on the 50c stamp.

The star cluster Pleiades is featured on the $1.00 stamp which has been launched to celebrate Matariki – Maori New Year – near the shortest day of each year.

New Zealand Post Stamps general manager Ivor Masters says the Southern Skies series is a great chance to share New Zealand’s night sky with the rest of the world.

“These are iconic views of the night sky –many New Zealanders know where to find the Southern Cross at night, while Matariki is one of the most important lunar events on our calendar.”

The stamps have been developed by New Zealand Post with the help of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand and Canterbury University’s Professor Peter Cottrell.

“I’m delighted to have been involved in bringing the idea for this issue from its initial concept to its final state,” says Professor Cottrell.

“It has been an opportunity to convey some of the grandeur of the skies with the scientific and technological achievements of New Zealand scientists and engineers.”

Each constellation is depicted with a different telescope from a range of New Zealand observatories, or those with New Zealand involvement, such as the Southern African Large Telescope or SALT.

Southern Skies Series
Southern Cross – 50c stamp
Pleiades - $1.00
Triffid Nebula - $1.50
Southern Pinwheel - $2.00
Large Magellanic Cloud - $2.50

The products are available from PostShops, New Zealand Post’s Real Aotearoa shops in Auckland and Christchurch, selected retailers, the Collectables and Solutions Centre and the New Zealand Post stamps website, www.nzpost.co.nz/stamps and www.nzpost.co.nz/coins, from June 6 2007.

ENDS

About SALT

Southern African Large Telescope is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. It can record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon. SALT was completed in 2005, funded by a consortium of international partners from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

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