Mississauga Centre RASC

97th Meeting

                                                         Speakers’ Night           

Day:                Friday January 11, 2008

Chair:                Randy Attwood

Speaker:          David Foot

Randy Attwood announced that members of the Mississauga Centre have raised $2060 for the Observatory Park initiative for the David Dunlop Observatory.  

Eclipse Philately

David Foot was born in England, raised in Australia and is an economics professor at U of T. He is well known for his book “Boom, Bust and Echo”.  He is an eclipse chaser, bird watcher and stamp collector and has seen many solar eclipses since his first in 1970. 

David showed a list of the eclipses he has seen, mentioned the Canadian eclipses and described the various types (partial, annular and total and hybrid).  In a 100 year interval, there are about 63 total and about 155 total plus annular plus hybrid eclipses. He combines his eclipse chasing with stamp collecting or philately.  The word “philately” is derived from the Greek “philos” or “love of” and “ateleia” or “exempt from tax” because the receiver of a letter does not need to pay tax since it has been paid for already by the sender. Prior to 1840, the receiver had to pay for the mail.  A philatelist collects stamps and postal history. 

One of the early eclipse stamps issued for a specific eclipse was the Cook Islands stamp with its overprint variations. For the 1973 eclipse, a number of African countries such as Senegal, Mauritania and Niger had stamps including imperforated sheets before the actual perforated stamps came out.  Indonesia issued one of the first souvenir sheets in 1983 for that year’s eclipse. In 1991, groups of stamps, each with part of the image, such as from El Salvador, showed a complete picture in total.  Similar large images were also made by Montserrat in 1998 and Aldernay in 1999.

Postal history includes covers, cancellations, illustrations, enclosures, addresses, and additional markings, all of which are collected by enthusiasts. Prior to and around 1840, letters were written on envelopes such as by the astronomer Airy on an eclipse expedition to Italy in 1842.  Covers can have meter cancels instead of a stamp, with an eclipse theme, as for example a cover from the 1912 hybrid eclipse or from a  partial eclipse. He also showed a lunar eclipse stamp – a rarity.

Various stamps show characteristics of a total solar eclipse.  The souvenir sheet from Indonesia in 1983 had a map of the eclipse path.  Eclipse contacts are seen on a stamp for the 1925 New York eclipse, whereas the Maldives Islands incorrectly showed contacts on their 1999 stamps.  Iranian stamps from 1999 have good images of Baily’s beads and the diamond ring. Mali shows coronal streamers on its stamp from the International Geophysical Year.   Stamps and covers also have pictures of people observing eclipses from the sea, air and rockets doing eclipse measurements (1970, 1972).

David outlined many firsts in eclipse issues: the first eclipse cancel (on the island of Java in 1901 from a temporary eclipse post office), the first diagram of an eclipse (1925 Philippines on a private cover), first stamp of a total eclipse (Mexico 1942), the first illustrated cancel (Sweden 1954 showing the path of the eclipse), the first stamp for a specific eclipse (1961 Romania and Yugoslavia), the first cancel and stamp together (Cook Islands 1970).  

On an early eclipse expedition in 1887, the astronomer Todd took the CP railway Vancouver, then sailed to Japan. American and Japanese letters were sent  back and forth from the two countries.  In 1889 on the eclipse expedition to West Africa, a penalty cover, not allowed for unofficial use, was issued.  Also shown were a letter from 1896 sent to the eclipse expedition in Japan from Oxford, a 1900 cover to Libya,  post cards from eclipses of 1901, 1912, 1919 and 1923.  For the 1932 eclipse an envelope with a personal drawing was posted at the actual moment of totality.  In 1937, the two rivals US on the ship Avocet,  and Britain on the HMS Wellington had their own expeditions and postal issues at Canton Island in the Pacific for that year’s eclipse.  In 1954 Sweden had eclipse cancels with various cities depending on where the letters were posted.  A RCAF eclipse cover came out in July 1963 although Canada has never issued an actual eclipse stamp.  Other cards and covers include University of Hawaii for an eclipse seen in Tahiti in 1965, Wallops Island rocket firings and covers from 1970, an eclipse over the St. Lawrence River in 1972, covers from various African countries and the ship Canberra in 1973, 1979 Canada covers, 1983 Indonesia covers from various cities and David’s own cover for the Philippines eclipse with the RASC in 1988, and Randy’s personalized cover from the Galapagos Islands in 1998   In 1999 many cities had their own cancels for the eclipse  as a way of advertising. 

Other items related to eclipses include the 1925 New York postcard advertising the event, advertising mail for the 1994 Bolivia eclipse, eclipse company envelopes and stamp-like tubes in the 1880’s, eclipse brochures in 1932, glasses for viewing partial phases, trade cards, cigarette cards and anything related to solar eclipses.         

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to Miss Centre. meeting reports page
Mississauga Centre RASC