(by Jim Rose)
The Hubble First Day if Issue was celebrated by the USPS and Carnegie Observatories at the Carnegie Observatories
campus in Pasadena on April 10. The ceremony was open to the public, but a relatively small crowd attended. The
keynote speakers were Dr Allen Sandage, the only student Hubble ever had, and a colleague at Carnegie for many
years. He gave an interesting talk about the four great contributions Hubble made. I can't remember precisely
what they were, but one was the discovery of the expanding universe, and another was [establishing
the scale of the Universe and thus] inventing the [later named in his honour]
Hubble constant, whose value has been and is continuing to be a fundamental concern of cosmologists today - it
defines the age of the universe. [probably the third was establishing the existence of other
galaxies with the help of the then brand new 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson]. He also created the method
used today to catalog celestial objects [This was the most likely the fourth]. Sandage
was followed by Steve Hawley, the mission specialist on the Hubble launch and the second repair mission who operated
the remote arm that placed the telescope in orbit. His video was spectacular, and he graciously answered questions
and signed autographs.
The postal service was there and supplied a special cancel which was applied for that day. The Carnegie Institute
provided a FDC - #10 envelope with the set of stamps. JPL Stamp Club was invited to participate, and provided
a set of regular sized envelopes - one per stamp with a different cachet matching each stamp.
We just found out that the District PO made a boo-boo on the canceller used for the FD event. They were not supposed
to use the phrase "First Day of Issue" on the canceller - but they did. So they (the District) pulled
the canceller. They are making a new one, presumably without the offending phrase. I don't know what it will
look like. Consequently, the covers sent in for cancellation will get the new cancellation. And there will be
two cancellations for this event - one of which is no longer available. Fun eh? I can't believe they did this.
Yes I can too. Anyway, bye-the-bye, the covers we currently have (we made about 400 sets for the event) have
the first cancellation. The covers we will make (we had planned 750 sets total) will have the new cancellation.
We will have an Open House at JPL June 3 and 4, and we usually sell most of the current stock there. It may be
a couple of weeks until the new cancellation is available.
The Hubble cancellation is (will be) available through Vanessa Alain at the following address
USPS
c/o Vanessa Alain
870 S. Raymond
Pasadena, CA 91105
To my knowledge, very few if any covers were cancelled by Vanessa before the original canceller was pulled. So
if you have requests in, be patient.
Other Stuff:
We did covers for the SRTM mission - with a special cancel provided by the PO through the special efforts of Steven
Stein and Robert Rank. These two have worked hard to get events recognized at Pasadena, Houston, and other locations,
and have provided the artwork for the cancellers used over the past few years for Mars, Stardust, and other interesting
missions. They also arrange for special cancels to commemorate ISS assembly events at Houston.
Note : Editor's additions are in blue