Common Themes

These beautiful cigarette cards are part of a set entitled “Romance of the Heavens”, issued in 1928 by Wills Cigarettes. (Top and bottom photos were issued in 1929 and have been redone to say “Romance of the Heavens” in the top corner, instead of “Wills Cigarettes”.) I’ve been unable to find larger scans of them (those shown were taken from auction scans, the parts that weren’t watermarked, anyway.)

One seller describes them: “These cards show drawings of the planets and stars; the backs describe how these were understood in the 1920s.” Fortunately an eBay Guide has the details:

Name Of Set: Romance of the Heavens
Manufacturer: WD and HO Wills
Issue Year: 1928
Card Number: 50
Card Titles: Haley’s Comet, One Theory of the Formation of the Moon, Neap Tides, Spring Tides, A Shower of Meteors, A Lunar Corona, Typical Lunar Craters, Lunar Craters, The Earth as Seen From the Moon, Earth Shine, Mock Moons, Phases of the Moon, Portion of the Moon’s Surface, The Dumb Bell Nebula, A Spiral Nebula, The Inner Planets, The Outher Planets, Jupiter, Two Views of Mars, An Imaginary Landscape of Mars, The Surface of Mercury-Imaginary, Saturn, Saturn’s Rings, Two Views of Saturn, The Dark Sid of Venus-and Imaginary View, The Sunlit Sid of Venus-and imaginary view, Cassiopeia and Pole Star, The Composition of a Star, The Evolution of a Star, Two Giant Stars, Leo, The Milky Way, Orion, The Pleiades, The Pole Star and the Plough, The Southern Cross, Variable Stars, The Aurora Australis, The Aurora Borealis, The Cause of Auroras, Solar Corona, Electrical Discharges from the Sun, An Eclipse, An Eclipse of the Sun Viewed from the Moon, The Midnight Sun, Shadows and Rainbows, Solar Prominences, Typical Sun Spot, and The Zodiacal Light.

Sometimes the images that strike me are the simple ones — it’s dramatic, I suppose. Could not help but post this beautiful stamp of the Southern Cross, issued by Argentina in 1997.

A beautiful Etsy find that looks like the night sky, and changes depending on the light source. (It also glows in the dark.) Neat stuff!

More retro album covers that Brian found on 317x.com. Featured today are a pair of ku-raaaaaazy guys and a number of musical-instrument-shaped constellations. Gotta love those horn-rimmed glasses!

This Planisphere Watch is enough reason to go out tonight with a telescope!

The Planisphere Watch displays the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Simply align the date and time (displayed on the edge of the bezel) and you can view the major constellations visible that evening.

This watch features a durable brass case, scratch resistant crystal dome lens, Japanese quartz movement and a “Super Luminescent” dial that glows for 2 to 3 hours (so you can easily read it in the dark without a flashlight or LED).