Celebrating 60 years of benefaction Kingdon Tomlinson Endowment Fund

It has been 60 years since the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) received support for the first time for an astronomical endeavour from the Kingdon Tomlinson Trust founded from the bequest of Julie Anne Tomlinson. The Fund was held in trust from inception. Over the years, grants from the Fund as recommended by RASNZ, have been awarded for a variety of astronomical activities to individuals, affiliated societies, observatories and astronomical grassroot projects.

Below are samples of testimonials from past grant recipients on how the grant has impacted their astronomical endeavours.

In February 2021, the Trust was moved to Auckland Foundation as RASNZ’s Kingdon Tomlinson Endowment Fund to continue to hold the endowment of Julie Anne Tomlinson in trust to be applied in promoting New Zealand astronomy. It is administered by the RASNZ and through three volunteer professional representatives namely Jeremy Glasgow, Nalayini Davies and Susan Shoebridge.

While we are encouraged by the benefit the Fund has brought to the astronomy community, we also note that the Fund’s capital base needs to grow if it is to continue to support the ever-increasing and diverse expansion of astronomy in New Zealand since this Fund was founded 60 years ago.

You can donate

With this in mind, we have worked in partnership with Auckland Foundation to facilitate an easy process for donation contributions to the RASNZ’s Kingdon Tomlinson Endowment Fund:

https://www.aucklandfoundation.org.nz/rasnz

All donations of $5 or more are tax deductible. Your donation will auto-generate an electronic receipt that you can submit to the IRD at the end of the tax year for a 33.3% rebate.

Your support for RASNZ and our effort to grow the Fund will allow us to continue to assist New Zealand astronomy in perpetuity and will be greatly appreciated by the generations to come.

We look forward to your support.

Nalayini Davies

RASNZ President/K-T Fund Advisory Committee Member

Testimonials

“…the Kingdon Tomlinson Fund (KTF) has always been a godsend to Astronomical society members…the KT Fund has often made the difference between what was and was not possible. And not just for the organisers, or for the life of the project, but for the enduring impact on all those who came, saw and built!”

Marilyn Head

“A $2000 KT Fund award enabled Fireballs Aotearoa, New Zealand’s citizen science meteor camera program, to purchase remote access software that allowed installation, configuration and monitoring of the meteor cameras distributed widely around New Zealand. Because of having the easy ability to remotely access and manage cameras, we have been able to effectively support the community with configuration and trouble shooting. A direct consequence of the fund was that it led to the discovery of New Zealand’s 10th meteorite, which was recovered from near Tekapo in March this year.”

Professor James Scott

About 1981 or 1982, the University of Canterbury was starting the design and construction of the 1-m telescope for Mt John. We decided to raise the funds needed by a public appeal, by applying to the Lottery and University Grants Committee (which is now defunct) and to the K-T fund. The support of K-T amounted to $1000 a year for three successive years, I think 1982, 1983 and 1984, so a total support of $3000. Certainly that was a small fraction of the total cost, but it was

very welcome support and indicated to the broader funding appeal that RASNZ supported the important project in principle.

Professor John Hearnshaw

“KT assisted with the funding for replacing a previous telescope and mount with a modern system and upgrading observatory systems generally to make it an accessible and efficient working environment in 2008. The refurbished observatory has hosted a great deal of public outreach and science observation since its installation and continues to be heavily used in both roles.”

Dunedin Astronomical Society

Article added: Wednesday 22 May 2024