Stamping the Earth from Space

Born in Italy in 1950, Renato Dicati has cultivated since childhood a love for astronomy and an interest in space. In 1975 he graduated in Astrophysics at the University of Milan. After an interesting experience as a teacher in public schools, he has worked for 30 years at IBM Italy, dealing with education, training, and communications based on the use of information technology and multimedia. Over the last twenty years he has dedicated much of his free time to science. He has organized philatelic exhibitions on the history of astronomy and astronautics and has published numerous books and articles on astronomy, space exploration, and thematic philately. Renato Dicati is a member of AS.IT.AF (the Italian Astrophilately Society) and serves on the Board of Directors of USFI (Italian Philatelic Press Union). His activities include volunteering at ASPHI, a non-profit foundation that promotes the integration of people with disabilities in school, at work, and in society through the use of information communication technology. He published Stamping Through Astronomy with Springer in 2013.

Introduction.- Prologue: from Sputnik to the Internation Space Station.-  Satellite Geodesy.- Researches on the atmosphere.- Ionospheric research with satellites.- Researches on the Earth's Magnetosphere.- Meteorological Satellites.- The study of micro-meteorites and cosmic dust.- Earth remote sensing.- Cartography and mapping from space.- Oceanography  from space.- Bibliography.- Index.

"I have not come across a philatelic survey of the history of Earth exploration from space before. For anyone who has ever had a stamp album, or who has admired a postage stamp, this makes the book really special. The stamps are shown full size and in accurate colour reproduction. Well over 1100 stamps are illustrated. ... it is marvellous." (David W. Hughes, The Observatory, Vol. 137 (1261), December, 2017)