Nebula NGC 6302

A nebula is is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. NGC 6302, also called  Butterfly Nebula, is a bipolar planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. The structure in the nebula is among the most complex ever observed in planetary nebulae.

Thanks to ewejka and CaCrr :)

Today's theme on Sunday Stamps #125 is Stamps with unusual shapes, or unusual size - as its a totally interesting and challenging assignment I have added examples to both my cover and my postcard blog, in hope to cover as much variety as possible (though many have already been posted in previous years..!) If interested you can see other people's posts here:

                                                     

                                              

Constellation Southern Cross, New Zealand

Southern Cross is an English name for Crux, the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, easily seen from the southern hemisphere. The brightest four of the five stars appear on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

I love the starry sky! Its been a while since I looked at a stellar map so am getting a bit rusty, but can still discern certain constellations and it feels pretty good xD Thank you Annie/wildfire for this cool card!

3 Maxi-Cards, Australia

Australian Post issues some amazing maxi-cards dont you agree?! And a vast choice too! So i was all beside myself with excitement when i was choosing cards for a private swap with Xue/elena_sokolova :D tough task too..! In the end it was:

1. Fijian Crested Iguana - of course i cannot miss a new lizard card for my collection, esp this critically endangered fellow...! It resides in dry forest habitats of only three Fijian island (out of 332)! The main destroyers of its natural habitat seem to be feral goats..? Its green colour is absolutely amazing on some of the photos i've seen!

2. An unidentified object in space heh. The series of maxi-cards with theme Space from the year 2000 seems to comprise of 6 cards showing: launch site, astronaut, flight crew, spacecraft, terrain and robots (?!). Oh well i had to choose one..!

The 3rd card is from the RR, showing the poster image for the Australian movie Jedda, made in 1955.  It is most notable for being the 1st movie starring two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth. Judging by the synopsis its quite the sad story...:(

Thank you Xue for these great cards :)

Milky Way Galaxy

 Heart Of The Milky Way

   

A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy provided by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and its companion Great Observatories (the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory) commemorated the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.

Need i say more? This text at the back of the card sez it all..:)

I am always sooo happy to get cosmos cards - this one is thanks to Jorg/jhbr and the CaCrr :))

Yuri Gagarin

Thanks to RRs on the forum i've come into possession of these wonderful cards showing the best-known Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin :) I love the fact that i have a card showing him 'at work' and another in a much more leisurely manner. A big thanks goes to Olga (snisa) and Sveta (orange_froggy)!

Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space in his vostok spacecraft, and complete an orbit of the earth, on april 12, 1961. he was only 27 years old! He must be one of the most popular people from Russia - a household name :) My parents have memories of his endevour, and to them it just sounded unbelievable at the time that the man was actually travelling thru space!

Unfortunately his life story didnt end happily...in 1968, while on a routine training, his MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach. his body was cremated and the ashes buried in the walls of the kremlin on Red Square in Moscow. Behind he left his wife Valentina and two daughters Elena and Galina. And a legacy never to be forgotten.