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Southland Astronomical Society Observatory
Southland Astronomical Society Observatory in Invercargill is New Zealand's southernmost observatory. Operated by Southland Astronomical Society but owned by the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, it is situated on the western side of the museum building. The primary telescope in use is a fork mounted 30cm (12 inch) diameter Cassegrain design. The telescope can also be operated in the classical Newtonian configuration by removing the secondary mirror. It was built by Russell Beck. Public viewing nights are each Wednesday, 7pm to 9pm, from April to September while daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ... is not in effect. References External links Southland Astronomical Society Facebook pageSouthland Astronomical Society Archived WebsiteAerial vie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invercargill
Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains to the east of the Ōreti or New River some north of Bluff, which is the southernmost town in the South Island. It sits amid rich farmland that is bordered by large areas of conservation land and marine reserves, including Fiordland National Park covering the south-west corner of the South Island and the Catlins coastal region. Many streets in the city, especially in the centre and main shopping district, are named after rivers in Scotland. These include the main streets Dee and Tay, as well as those named after the Tweed, Forth, Tyne, Esk, Don, Ness, Yarrow, Spey, Eye and Ythan rivers, amongst others. The 2018 census showed the population was 54,204, up 2.7% on the 2006 census number and up 4.8% on the 2013 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southland Astronomical Society
The Southland Astronomical Society is the southernmost astronomical society in the world. Based in Invercargill at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island, its small, active group of about 36 amateur astronomer members participate in a variety of astronomical activities including education with groups and school children, deep sky observing, astrophotography and aurora observation. The society operates the Southland Astronomical Society Observatory Southland Astronomical Society Observatory in Invercargill is New Zealand's southernmost observatory. Operated by Southland Astronomical Society but owned by the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, it is situated on the western side of the museum bui ... and telescope at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, with public viewing nights during the winter (April to September). The telescope is a fork mounted 30 cm (12 inch) diameter Cassegrain design. The society meets monthly to discuss general astronomical topics and re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Beck
Russell Joseph Beck (21 February 1941 – 10 February 2018) was a New Zealand archaeologist, museum curator, and artist. He has three children, one of them is Peter Beck, founder of aerospace company Rocket Lab. Biography Beck came from an old family in Southland, with his great-grandfather arriving in 1863. He was one six children (four girls, two boys) and was educated at Waihopai Primary School and then Southland Technical School. He had a wide interest in science which was developed at secondary school. He developed an interest in geology when aged 10 or 11 when digging a long-drop toilet at the family's crib in Te Anau, and took up astronomy and built a six-inch reflecting telescope which formed the basis of a home observatory, followed in 1959 by a 12-inch Cassegrain telescope which he later donated to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery and installed in the observatory constructed in 1972. From 1961, Beck began volunteering his weekends at Southland Museum while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daylight Saving Time
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typically by one hour) during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in the spring ("spring forward"), and to set clocks back by one hour in the fall ("fall back") to return to standard time. As a result, there is one 23-hour day in early spring and one 25-hour day in the middle of autumn. The idea of aligning waking hours to daylight hours to conserve candles was first proposed in 1784 by U.S. polymath Benjamin Franklin. In a satirical letter to the editor of ''The Journal of Paris'', Franklin suggested that waking up earlier in the summer would economize on candle usage; and calculated considerable savings. In 1895, New Zealand entomologist and astronome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
