Heritage et AL

Many of us will be star-gazing this month as we celebrate the rising of the constellation Matariki (also known as Pleiades) which signifies New Year in the Māori calendar. Looking up at the sky from the southern Hemisphere vantage point, many of us may know a few major constellations like Matariki, the Southern Cross and Orion (down under, this is known more often as the Pot or the Saucepan). A trip to an observatory or some Googling might help us identify a few more, or we may even find a book at our local library such as one of these:            The practical skywatcher's handbook / Robert Burnham ... [et al.] ; consultant editor, John O'Byrne       A walk through the southern sky : a guide to stars and constellations and their legends / Milton Heifetz, Wil Tirion. New Zealand's night sky : prominent stars and constellations

To acknowledge International Map Year we’ve selected some of our heritage photos of surveyors at work in New Zealand in the 1920s. Surveying is the process of measuring three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them. As well as being the basis of many maps, it also is used to establish boundaries of land ownership. Renowned Auckland photographer  Clifton Firth  documented surveyors from the Department of Lands and Survey in the field, the office, as well as the equipment they used. Ref: Clifton Firth,  Showing a man using a Lands and Survey Department theodolite, 1920s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 34-LAN-1. Ref: Clifton Firth,  Showing hands running a survey line to a survey peg, 1920s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 34-LAN-2. Ref: Clifton Firth,  Showing a Lands and Survey Department theodolite, 1920s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libr...