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https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/royal-mail-stamps-celebrate-ras-bicentennial
https://shop.royalmail.com/visions-of-the-universe-presentation-pack
Tut, tut, RAS – the plural of aurora is aurorae.
Alex.
I would also question the claims that gravity bends light, and black holes are super-dense regions of space. But this – as we used to say when I were a lad – is what we find…
Nice stamps. That plural is certainly correct in the original latin (where they had strict rules about such things) but I doubt if many Engish speakers would use it now. Reminds me of the Romanes eunt domus skit in the Life of Brian…
“He’s not an astronomer, he’s a very naughty boy…!”
Well, in my astronomical library Messrs Bone, Moore, Sidgwick et al write about aurorae, novae, and supernovae, so after decades of such usage it now grates on my ears to attend talks about ‘auroras’, etc.
I’ll say tomato…
Alex.
Latin is a dead tongue as dead as dead can be first it killed the Romans and now it’s killing me. All are dead that wrote it All are dead that spoke it. All are dead that taught it. Thank God they earned it. As the old school rhyme goes.
Indeed, it’s sloppy calling aurorae “auroras”. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Latin motto being dropped from the new RAS logo.
On the other hand, it’s gratifying to see astronomy featured on Royal Mail stamps.
Apart from debating “Whatever did the Romans do for us…” and the varied comments about the artwork, I agree that it’s great to see astronomy on the new stamps.
If it encourages some youngsters to take an interest in our fascinating hobby / science it will all be worthwhile.
Alex.
Though I didn’t notice much from the RAS itself. I would have thought they could have marketed sets and FDCs. Instead I found several on a global online auction site…
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There are typos in the booklet too unfortunately:
https://shop.royalmail.com/visions-of-the-universe-prestige-stamp-book
It is a great publicity idea for the RAS and astronomy.
Anyone involved in publications will know how difficult it is to spot every mistake and it is impossible to please everyone with the layout and language. I know mistakes in our own BAA publications often don’t get picked up until after they have gone to the printers, or been published on the website, even when several people proof read them.
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