The Leviathan of Parsonstown (Tom Dinneen)

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The Leviathan of Parsonstown

Built in 1845 by William Parsons (the 3rd Earl of Rosse), the great telescope on the grounds of Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland was the largest in the world for over 70 years (1845-1917). It was so big that it affectionately became known as the Leviathan of Parsonstown. The primary mirror is 1.83 meters (72") in diameter, 5" thick and weights about 3 tons. It was made out of speculum metal. The tube itself is 16.5 meters long (a pretty decent 16,500mm focal length ;-). All in the telescope weighed about 12 tons. The 12 meter high walls and supports facilitated a large altitude range but limited azimuth. The telescope was fully reconstructed in the 1990's (albeit with an aluminium mirror).

Using the telescope, Parsons was able to see further into space than anyone had seen before. He sketched the images that he saw using charcoal or chalk and his main interest was nebulae. One of his discoveries was that M51 had a spiral structure suggesting "dynamical laws". He dubbed it the Whirlpool Nebula. Unknown at the time but this was the first hint at the existence of other galaxies.

Well worth a visit if you happen to be in that neck of the woods.

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Description: Here you can see the brass eyepiece on the west side of the telescope and the viewing platform that can be independently raised alongside the telescope. That's Birr Castle in the background.

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Description: On the grounds of the castle is the Irish node of one of the European LOFAR (low frequency array) radio telescopes.

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