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Townsend Observatory
Townsend Observatory, owned and administered by the University of Canterbury, is part of the Arts Centre of Christchurch, New Zealand and was open on clear Friday evenings. The building collapsed in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. History James Townsend was one of the Canterbury Pilgrims, having arrived on the '' Cressy'' in December 1850. In his retirement, he lived on Park Terrace, just north of the site of the Canterbury College. In 1891, he gifted his equatorial telescope to the college, as he wished to make it available to the community. Townsend's telescope was built by Thomas Cook & Son in 1864. Triggered by Townsend's gift, the Astronomical Society of Christchurch made its funds of NZ£420 available to the college on the understanding that an observatory would be built. New Zealand was in a recession, and the college was reluctant to start a new building. Townsend died in November 1894 and did not see the observatory being started. In 1895, the decision was mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arts Centre Observatory
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both highly dynamic and a characteristically constant feature of human life, they have developed into innovative, stylized and sometimes intricate forms. This is often achieved through sustained and deliberate study, training and/or theorizing within a particular tradition, across generations and even between civilizations. The arts are a vehicle through which human beings cultivate distinct social, cultural and individual identities, while transmitting values, impressions, judgments, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life and experiences across time and space. Prominent examples of the arts include: * visual arts (including architecture, ceramics, drawing, filmmaking, painting, photography, and sculpting), * literary arts (includin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbury College, the first constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is New Zealand's second-oldest university, after the University of Otago, itself founded four years earlier in 1869. Its original campus was in the Christchurch Central City, but in 1961 it became an independent university and began moving out of its original neo-gothic buildings, which were re-purposed as the Christchurch Arts Centre. The move was completed on 1 May 1975 and the university now operates its main campus in the Christchurch suburb of Ilam. The university is well known for its Engineering and Science programmes, with its Civil Engineering programme ranked 9th in the world (Academic Ranking of World Universities, 2021). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christchurch Arts Centre
The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora is a hub for arts, culture, education, creativity and entrepreneurship in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located in the Gothic Revival former Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury), Christchurch Boys' High School and Christchurch Girls' High School buildings, many of which were designed by Benjamin Mountfort. The centre is a national landmark and taonga as it is home to New Zealand's largest collection of category one heritage buildings with 21 of the 23 buildings covered by Heritage New Zealand listings. The centre, which is held in trust for the people of Canterbury and its visitors, has been undergoing a large restoration since it was badly damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Buildings are progressively reopening to the public as they are strengthened and repaired and more than two-thirds of the buildings have reopened. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / Ōtākaro flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park along its banks. The city's territorial authority population is people, and includes a number of smaller urban areas as well as rural areas. The population of the urban area is people. Christchurch is the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand, after Auckland. It is the major urban area of an emerging sub-region known informally as Greater Christchurch. Notable smaller urban areas within this sub-region include Rangiora and Kaiapoi in Waimakariri District, north of the Waimakariri River, and Rolleston and Lincoln in Selwyn District to the south. The first inhabitants migrated to the area sometime between 1000 and 1250 AD. They hunted moa, which led ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2011 Christchurch Earthquake
A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east of the central business district. It caused widespread damage across Christchurch, killing 185 people, in New Zealand's fifth-deadliest disaster. Christchurch's central city and eastern suburbs were badly affected, with damage to buildings and infrastructure already weakened by the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of 4 September 2010 and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was felt across the South Island and parts of the lower and central North Island. While the initial quake only lasted for approximately 10 seconds, the damage was severe because of the location and shallowness of the earthquake's focus in relation to Christchurch as well as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cressy (ship)
''Cressy'' was one of the "First Four Ships" in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand. ''Cressy'' was the last to arrive on 27 December. The other ships were ''Charlotte Jane'', , and '' Randolph''. The passengers aboard these four ships were referred to as the "Canterbury Pilgrims" of Christchurch. Their names are inscribed on a marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ... plaque in Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch. The ship is remembered in the name of a road, Cressy Terrace, in the port town of Lyttelton. Voyage from England to New Zealand On the morning of 4 September 1850. the barque ''Cressy'', J. D. Bell, master, left Gravesend, and was towed down the river. After sailing down the Channel and nearly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Press
''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One community newspaper—''Northern Outlook''- is also published by ''The Press'' and is free. The newspaper has won the title of New Zealand Newspaper of the Year (in its circulation category) three times: in 2006, 2007 and 2012. It has also won the overall Newspaper of the Year title twice: in 2006 and 2007. History James FitzGerald came to Lyttelton on the ''Charlotte Jane'' in December 1850, and was from January 1851 the first editor of the ''Lyttelton Times'', Canterbury's first newspaper. From 1853, he focussed on politics and withdrew from the ''Lyttelton Times''. After several years in England, he returned to Canterbury concerned about the proposed capital works programme of the provincial government, with his chief concern the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equatorial Mount
An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, the polar axis, parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras. The advantage of an equatorial mount lies in its ability to allow the instrument attached to it to stay fixed on any celestial object with diurnal motion by driving one axis at a constant speed. Such an arrangement is called a sidereal or clock drive. Equatorial mounts achieve this by aligning their rotational axis with the Earth, a process known as polar alignment. Astronomical telescope mounts In astronomical telescope mounts, the equatorial axis (the '' right ascension'') is paired with a second perpendicular axis of motion (known as the '' declination''). The equatorial axis of the mount is often equipped with a motorized "''clock drive''", that rotates that axis one revolution every 23 hours and 56 minutes in exact sync with the appar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Cook & Son
Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. In 1851, Cook arranged transport to the Great Exhibition of 1851. He organised his first tours to Europe in 1855 and to the United States in 1866. In 1865, the founder's son John Mason Cook began working for the company full-time. In 1871, he became a partner, and the name of the company was changed to Thomas Cook & Son. The company was nationalised in 1948, along with the railways, becoming part of the British Transport Commission. After de-nationalisation in 1972, it was acquired by a consortium of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile Association, then subsequently bought by Westdeutsche Landesbank in 1992. In 2001, it was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which changed its name to Thomas Cook AG. History Thomas Cook & Son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Pound
The pound (symbol £, £NZ. for distinction) was the currency of New Zealand from 1840 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (abbreviation s or /) each of 12 penny, pence (symbol d). History Up until the outbreak of the World War I, First World War, the New Zealand pound was at parity with one pound sterling. As a result of the great depression of the early 1930s, the New Zealand agricultural export market to the UK was badly affected. Australian banks, which controlled the New Zealand exchanges with London, devalued the New Zealand pound to match the value of the Australian pound in 1933, from parity or £NZ 1 = £1 sterling to £NZ 1 = 16s sterling (£0.8). In 1948 it returned to parity with sterling or £NZ.1 = £1 sterling. In 1967, New Zealand decimalised its currency, replacing the pound with the New Zealand dollar, dollar at a rate of $NZ 2 = £NZ 1 (o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
