February 2007

For the second year running, the series “Sciences of the Earth and the Universe” is issued with two self adhesive stamps devoted to Basic Cartography and the Radio Telescope of the Astronomic Centre of Yebes (Guadalajara).

"Basic Cartography "

Every civilization, back from the earliest ages, have tried to describe in the most precise way the geographic features and this has enabled us to know the planet’s evolution until the exact representation.

The bill of Ordenación de la Cartografía published in 1986, establishes that official cartography is classified into basic, derived and thematic. Basic cartography, to which this stamp is devoted, is defined as the one which. “ is done according to a cartographic rule established by the central administration and is obtained by a direct process of observation and measurement of the earth’s surface.”

"Radio Telescope "

The Astronomic centre of Yebes (Guadalajara) is the most important technological development centre of the National Astronomy Observatory and is one of the ten Spanish investigation centres classified as a Great Scientific Installation. It is 70 kilometres form Madrid and meets all the suitable requirements for radio astronomic observation.

In the National Plans for the Development of Radio Astronomy which have been developed in Spain, it was agreed to build a radio telescope with 40 metre diameter for the different wave lengths which will be used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). This is a type of astronomical interferometer used in radio astronomy, in which the data received at each antenna in the array are paired with timing information, usually from a local atomic clock, and then stored for later analysis on magnetic tape or hard disk.