Royal Mail unveil special stamps honouring UK attraction with dual hemispheres
When you stand across the line from this UK spot, you have one foot in the east and one in the west
Posting a letter might seem a thing of the past. But whether it's a birthday card, an update from abroad, or just a note of appreciation to a loved one, there are new stamps on the UK market that could fit the bill.
Royal Mail has unveiled 10 stamps being issued to celebrate the history and scientific developments achieved at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, since its foundation in 1675. And the attraction has a fascinating feature.
The Observatory stands at the Prime Meridian, which divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Visitors can stand with one foot in the East and one foot in the West - literally straddling the hemispheres.
The Prime Meridian is also the reference point for Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the basis for all time zones.
The main set of six tamps pays home to the the Airy Transit Circle Telescope, Flamsteed House, which is the Great Equatorial Telescope, the largest refracting telescope in the UK, the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope, the Prime Meridian where visitors can experience said dual hemispheres, and the Shepherd Gate Clock. A further four stamps, presented in a miniature sheet, honour prize-winning clockmaker John Harrison and his marine timekeepers, ahead of the 250th anniversary of his death next year.
The stamps showcase each of Harrison's prototypes for measuring longitude at sea, which became known as H1, H2, H3 and H4.
"We are proud to honour the Royal Observatory's 350th anniversary with a set of stamps that celebrate its enduring legacy in advancing our understanding of the universe," said David Gold, Director of External Affairs at Royal Mail.
The Royal Observatory was founded by King Charles II in 1675 and was Britain's first state-funded scientific building.
The Observatory was founded to provide better star charts that would enhance navigation for global trade.
Flamsteed House, the Observatory's original building, became home to ten successive Astronomers Royal who observed the stars and developed new instruments such as the Airy Transit Circle and Great Equatorial Telescope.
And what's so special about the Prime Meridian? Well, from the late 19th century, astronomers took thousands of measurements to define the Prime Meridian and establish zero degrees longitude.
Their work transformed how we explored our world in an age before smartphones and satellites.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was made publicly visible via the Shepherd Gate Clock and its distribution via telegraph signals became an essential part of daily life.
Out at sea, Royal Navy surveyors plotted their longitude from Greenwich using chronometers based on John Harrison's revolutionary marine timekeepers.
The widespread use by ships worldwide of charts based on the Greenwich Meridian contributed to the international recognition of Greenwich as Prime Meridian of the world in 1884.
The stamp images narrate the story of the Royal Observatory and its pivotal role in the history of astronomy, timekeeping, and navigation.
The set features specially commissioned artwork highlighting key areas such as notable buildings and significant objects from the collection.
Fancy surprising a relative with a good old-fashioned letter? The stamps are available to pre-order from June 5 by clicking here and by telephone on 03457 641 641. A Presentation Pack including all 10 stamps is priced at £17.90.
The stamps go on general sale from 12 June.
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
5 days ago
- Sky News
Artificial solar eclipse created by 'driverless' spacecraft in world first
Two "driverless" spacecraft have flown in perfect formation to create a small artificial solar eclipse and "achieve what no other mission has before", the European Space Agency (ESA) has said. The synchronised flight orbiting Earth allowed one of the satellites to cast an 8cm-wide shadow onto its sister craft, flying 150 metres away, by blocking its view from space of the sun's surface. The technique helped the space agency to capture detailed images of the sun's fiery outer atmosphere, called the corona. Scientists increasingly need to study the corona, but find it hard to do so without an eclipse because the sun's surface is one million times brighter. Solar wind, the flow of matter from the sun to outer space, and coronal mass ejections, the eruptions of plasma from the sun, can both interfere with modern technology like satellites – as well as cause displays of the Northern and Southern Lights. It is hoped that studying the corona more closely will help scientists better understand solar weather, as well as answer questions about the sun itself. The images from the Proba-3 mission were taken in March but have only been released by the space agency this week. "We can create our eclipse once every 19.6-hour orbit, while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year," said Andrei Zhukov from the Royal Observatory of Belgium. "On top of that, natural total eclipses only last a few minutes, while Proba-3 can hold its artificial eclipse for up to six hours." The two satellites are able to align with the sun so that the 1.4-metre disc carried by one of the spacecraft, the Occulter, covers the bright disc of the sun and casts a shadow. The other spacecraft, the Coronagraph, then takes a series of photographs with different exposure times. The satellites flew within 150 metres of each other, with a precision "equal to the thickness of the average fingernail", according to the ESA. Rather than relying on human drivers, who would have an "uncomfortable" delay of a fifth of a second while steering, the spacecraft autonomously lined themselves up with the sun in a manner "akin to driverless cars", the space agency said. When the spacecraft blasted off in December last year, they had enough fuel to keep going for around two years. After five years, it is expected they will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
How two satellites are mimicking total solar eclipses in space
A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth. Flying 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin. Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. "We almost couldn't believe our eyes,' Zhukov said in an email. 'This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.' Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. "We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying' with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show. ___ AP journalist John Leicester contributed to this report from Paris. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
STV News
08-06-2025
- STV News
University makes 'ground-breaking' discovery offering hope for chronic pain sufferers
Scientists in Aberdeen have made a ground-breaking discovery that could revolutionise treatment for chronic pain. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Academia Sinica in Taiwan and a group of international experts have discovered that chronic and acute pain are physiologically different. It is hoped the breakthrough will lead to new treatments for conditions such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Marlene Lowe knows only too well what it's like living with debilitating pain. The 35-year-old suffers from both chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, which causes widespread pain. Often dismissed by the healthcare system, she says these conditions can feel like an invisible burden. STV News Marlene describes her experience of living with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia She told STV News: 'One day you can be perfectly fine and you can go for a jog and the next day it is difficult to get out of bed. It's hard to balance those things out, so when you are in that state, people don't see you. 'They see you when you are feeling better and out and about. It's incredibly demoralising to say 'look, I'm in agonising pain constantly' and someone says 'But you are still working, you must be alright'.' Marlene is one of millions who suffer from persistent chronic pain which, unlike acute pain – typically caused by injury – is very hard to treat. Until now, Western cultures have not differentiated between the two. But scientists at Aberdeen University, together with experts from Taiwan, have discovered that in the nervous system, chronic pain is processed differently from the pain that comes from an injury or over exertion. Crucially, they found a new and distinct separate physiological pathway for this chronic type of pain, which means it can now be a target for future therapies. Dr Guy Bewick is a senior lecturer in biomedical science at the University of Aberdeen. 'The GP cannot give these patients anything to relieve the pain. It doesn't respond to painkillers,' he said. 'They have to give them moral support and advise them on things they should or shouldn't do, which will make it worse or better. 'But we think we have found the pathway. We have a model and we have found out how that gets turned on by two specific set of nerves, which are talking to each other.' STV News Dr Guy Bewick He explained that Eastern cultures have differentiated pain for centuries, with chronic pain being called 'sng' or 'suan tong' (sour pain) in Mandarin. 'The stinging pain from sharp objects and surgery can usually be treated effectively with common painkillers, but chronic pain often cannot,' he added. 'New treatments require an identifiably different drug target. This study has found that target. Specifically, we discovered the mechanism of this pain we call 'sng'.' Dr Bewick's team discovered that a molecule called glutamate is released in muscles to activate a highly unusual receptor. This sparked a collaboration with Professor Chen's team in Taiwan who found that too much glutamate release activated pain nerves nearby making them permanently active and not switch off as they normally would. Crucially, they then discovered that blocking the newly discovered, highly unusual, glutamate receptor entirely stopped the chronic pain being triggered. STV News Chronic pain has been shown to be physiologically different from acute pain – and now scientists have the roadmap for how to target it Scientists hope their findings will help develop new treatments for conditions such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. 'It's this ache which can become chronic and very distressing to some people,' Dr Bewick said. 'The acute pain responds well to painkillers; whereas the second pathway, people didn't know what it was. 'This has the potential to help the many people whose pain is currently inadequately treated.' The wider research was led by Professor Chih-Cheng Chen from Academia Sinica, supported by National Science and Technology Council's Brain Technology Project and an Investigator Award of Academia Sinica. They were able to differentiate between the two types of pain by genetically silencing neuronal pathways in a mouse model. At the Taipei Medical University Hospital in Taiwan, the theory was then tested in practice in a patient with a spinal cord injury that blocked 'standard' pain but spared the newly discovered pathway. Professor Chen said: 'Fundamentally, we found that sng persists even in people who have lost other pain sensation, for example, a patient with spinal cord damage did not notice when he had broken a toe but could still perceive 'sng' and position in the same leg. 'Clearly, therefore, sng is a separate pathway. 'This finding could lead to new pain relief treatments for such conditions as fibromyalgia, exercise-induced muscle pain (DOMS), rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic pain after spinal surgery. 'It is a truly ground-breaking discovery in pain research.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
