Step 1
If you read the text on the back of the card upside down you find the following: stelvisiondotcomslashskydashmap. Translating some words into symbols gives us the website www.stelvision.com/sky-map. On this site, you can map out the stars in the sky for any given moment in all of history, anywhere in the world. We are therefore now searching for a moment of history, at a certain place in the world.
Step 2
The two men displayed beside the ‘PLACE POSTAGE HERE’ box are president Reagan and president Gorbachev. They had a meeting in the latter part of the Cold War, laying the basis for the first Nuclear Forces Treaty. That meeting was held in Hofði house in Reykjavik, Iceland. This means we need to map out the sky as seen in Reykjavik on a specific date and time on the Sky Map.
Step 3
We just need to find a date and time to enter into the website we found earlier on. Between the heads of the presidents ‘DAY ONE’ is written. The Höfði meeting was held on 11-12 October 1986. Day one of the Höfði meeting is therefore the 11th of October 1986. As for the time, why don’t you just check your watch? The watch on the back of the card displays 11 o’clock, and on the borders of the watch the letters ‘AM’ are written. We have found the 11th of October, 11AM as our date and time. Now we have everything we need to map out the Sky Map we were looking for! Enter all the data into www.stelvision.com/sky-map.
Step 4
The map of stars we find matches the stars on the front. The arrow has just been decorated a lot on the card, emphasizing it. It points at the bottom row of symbols, indicating that is the first row of symbols you should translate. Afterwards, we move counterclockwise, as the arrow does too.
Step 5
The symbols on the front of the card match the symbols of constellations on the sky map. There is has to be a connection between the two.
Step 6
The dots on the constellations indicate a specific star. The colour of the dot is based on the colour of the name of the star, if its name is written in green on the sky-map website, the dot on the symbol of the Card becomes green too. For example, the very first symbol points at the Sun, of the constellation Virgo. You should find the following sequences of constellations – the specific stars are not always named, so to avoid further confusion I’ll leave those out here, but to make it a bit clearer I added a number that specifies how far it is removed from a main bright star: 1. Sun/Virgo1 – Hydra1 – Pollux/Gemini1 – Bootes2 – Draco1 – Capella/Auriga1 | 2. Arcturus/Bootes1 – Vega/Lyra1 – Hercules2 – Draco6 – Cepheus2 – Leo Minor1 | 3. Leo2 – Polaris/Ursa Minor1 | 4. Corvus1 – Hercules3 – Cancer1 – Cassiopeia1 | 5. Hydra1 – Virgo2 – Corona Borealis3 – Pollux/Gemini1 – Corona Borealis3 – Cygnus3 – Perseus4.
Step 7 (added in the 2nd edition)
We need to draw lines between the dots (read: stars) we found in the previous step, in their specific order. Try it, and see what happens.
Step 8
The solution word has five letters, and there are five series of codes (as the green vertical line separates the top row of symbols). Therefore every row of ‘stars’ should form one letter. Remember the previous hint? Connect the stars that every symbol has dotted, and each of the series of stars/constellations will create the shape of a letter, and the five sets/letters together form the solution word. For example, the bottom row of stars (Sun/Virgo1 – Hydra1 – Pollux/Gemini1 – Bootes2 – Draco1 – Capella/Auriga1) forms the letter S. If you follow this method through, you should get the letters S, H, I, N and E moving counterclockwise. The solution of this card is therefore ‘SHINE’.