Russia 1955 – Observing the aurora 

This nicely coloured 1-rouble stamp shows what the Gibbons catalogue describes as a ‘meteorologist taking observations’. It looks from the design as though he is using a theodolite to measure the altitude of an aurora. This stamp is the highest-value member of a set of three extolling the work of north pole scientific stations. It was re-issued in 1958 (placing it strictly beyond our cut-off date of 1957) as a block of four in a mini sheet, below. The sheet surrounding the block depicted a nice auroral arc with vertical rays, although only in blue and white. The sheet has its own SG number, listed in the table below. 

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