1 The origins of Astronomy -- 2 The ancients’ Astronomy -- 3 Medieval Astronomy -- 4 The revival of Astronomy and the Copernican revolution -- 5 Galileo and the  new views of the sky -- 6 The Mechanical Universe -- 7 The development of instrumentation -- 8 Observations and discoveries in the Solar System -- 9 The advent of Astrophysics -- 10 The discovery of the Universe -- 11 The new astronomies.   .

Stamps and other postal documents are an attractive vehicle for presenting astronomy and its development. Written with expertise and great enthusiasm, this unique book offers a historical and philatelic survey of astronomy and some related topics on space exploration. It contains more than 1300 color reproductions of stamps relating to the history of astronomy, ranging from the earliest observations of the sky to modern research conducted with satellites and space probes. Featured are the astronomers and astrophysicists who contributed to this marvelous story – not only Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Herschel, and Einstein but also hundreds of other minor protagonists who played an important role in the development of this, the most ancient yet the most modern of all the sciences. The book also examines in depth the diverse areas which have contributed to the history of astronomy, including the instrumentation, the theories, and the observations. Many stamps illustrate the beauty and the mystery of celestial objects: galaxies, nebulae, stars, planets, satellites, comets, and minor celestial bodies.