The 1874 transit of Venus: New Zealand's first foray into international astronomy

The nineteenth century transits of Venus provided astronomers with the opportunity to use these rare events to calculate the solar parallax, and New Zealand played a vital role. Apart from activities by local astronomers, international expeditions from England, France, Germany and the USA were based in New Zealand for the 1874 transit. Although many observing sites were clouded out on the vital day, New Zealand-based observations contributed to the determination of the solar parallax and led to further local observations during the 1882 transit of Venus

The contribution of Alfred Barrett Biggs to Australian and Tasmanian astronomy

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The Emergence of Radio Astronomy in Asia: Opening a New Window on the Universe

Some countries in the greater Asian area, namely Australia, China, India, Japan and New Zealand, played important roles in the early development of radio astronomy from the 1940s through into the 1960s. In this paper—which is based on the Public Lecture that we presented in Pune during the ICOA-9 conference—we trace these early developments. We then finish this review paper by briefly surveying the exciting new radio astronomical developments that are currently occurring throughout the greater Asian region

Can the application of rare earth elements improve yield and decrease the uptake of cadmium in ryegrass-dominated pastures?

Rare earth elements (REEs) have been linked to increases and decreases in plant growth and the uptake of biotoxic metals such as Cadmium (Cd). We hypothesised that under the right soil and climatic conditions the application REEs to soil may improve yield of ryegrass-dominated pasture and inhibit Cd uptake in foliage. A soil survey measuring REEs concentrations in soils from across New Zealand showed that REEs were enriched in Volcanic compared with Sedimentary-derived soils, and in soils used for dairying compared with those used for sheep and beef. From a range of REEs applied to ryegrass with and without N, lanthanum (La) showed minor yield improvement under glasshouse conditions, but only for Sedimentary (not Volcanic) soils low in REE concentration and at 40% available soil moisture or less. A similarly mixed yield response occurred in a field trial. Decreases in the Cd concentration of ryegrass (mgkg-1) only occurred in the harvests after application (40% at 20kg La ha-1 for one soil) and did not translate into an annual effect. We conclude that there was insufficient evidence to recommend the use of La (screened from a range of REEs as the most promising) to increase annual dry matter yield or decrease Cd uptake from ryegrass-dominated pastures