Coverage of the August 2017 solar eclipse is brought to you by Shoshone Rose Casino and Hotel.
The U.S. Postal Service has chosen the University of Wyoming as the site to launch a first-of-its-kind stamp that changes when you touch it. The stamp will show a total solar eclipse that transforms into an image of the moon from the heat of a finger.
The Total Solar Eclipse Forever stamp will be issued June 20, the day before the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The stamp will commemorate the total solar eclipse that will occur Aug. 21, when tens of millions of people in the United States — including Wyoming — hope to view a total eclipse of the sun.
The 1:30 p.m. First-Day-of-Issue ceremony will take place at the UW Art Museum in conjunction with is annual summer solstice celebration. Visitors are encouraged to arrive at 11:30 a.m. to watch a beam of sunlight move across the floor, hitting an embedded silver dollar in the center of the Rotunda Gallery at noon, and to look at the sun through special telescopes.
“We are delighted that the Postal Service has selected the University of Wyoming Art Museum for the launch of this very special, new stamp,” Art Museum Director Susan Moldenhauer says. “It will be an event to celebrate and learn about the sun and kick off the festivities for the summer of the eclipse in Wyoming.”
The stamp image is a photograph taken by astrophysicist Fred Espenak, aka “Mr. Eclipse,” of Portal, Ariz., that shows a total solar eclipse seen from Jalu, Libya, on March 29, 2006. Art director Antonio Alcalá, of Alexandria, Va., designed the stamp.
