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Description

Forty Eighth in my Constellations series of stamps

Lepus is a Constellation lying just south of the Celestal Equator, and represents a hare. It was one of the 48 Constellations of Ptolemy. The Constellation's location near Orion represents the hare being hunted. Another representation of Lepus is that it represents a Moon Rabbit, which features in many different cultures (Aztec mythology states the moon rabbit is a result of a rabbit being flung at the Moon by the deities after the god Tecciztecatl refused four times to jump into the fire during the Creation of the Fifth Sun; Nanahuatzin, the humble god, leaped into the fire and became the Sun. Tecciztecatl followed later, becoming the Moon. An alternate verion states that Tecciztecatl jumped into the fire in the form of a rabbit; the moon rabbit is the shadow of Tecciztecatl when he jumped into the fire. The Apollo 11 mission made a reference to the Chinese version of the moon rabbit legend, in that a girl named Chang'e stole the Elixir of Immortality from her husband; she fled to the moon with a rabbit, who constantly pounds the Elixir of Immortality for Chang'e). There are an average number of bright stars within Lepus, and one deep sky object, M79, a globlar star cluster that resembles a starfish.

Description

Forty Eighth in my Constellations series of stamps

Lepus is a Constellation lying just south of the Celestal Equator, and represents a hare. It was one of the 48 Constellations of Ptolemy. The Constellation's location near Orion represents the hare being hunted. Another representation of Lepus is that it represents a Moon Rabbit, which features in many different cultures (Aztec mythology states the moon rabbit is a result of a rabbit being flung at the Moon by the deities after the god Tecciztecatl refused four times to jump into the fire during the Creation of the Fifth Sun; Nanahuatzin, the humble god, leaped into the fire and became the Sun. Tecciztecatl followed later, becoming the Moon. An alternate verion states that Tecciztecatl jumped into the fire in the form of a rabbit; the moon rabbit is the shadow of Tecciztecatl when he jumped into the fire. The Apollo 11 mission made a reference to the Chinese version of the moon rabbit legend, in that a girl named Chang'e stole the Elixir of Immortality from her husband; she fled to the moon with a rabbit, who constantly pounds the Elixir of Immortality for Chang'e). There are an average number of bright stars within Lepus, and one deep sky object, M79, a globlar star cluster that resembles a starfish.