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Photo Story of the Week: This Tuesday Kevin Balanda takes us to Co Offaly:

When Co Offaly was at the forefront of humanity’s efforts to understand the cosmos

In the early 1840’s, the Third Earl of Rosse designed and built the largest telescope in the world (known as The Leviathan of Parsonstown) in the grounds of the Birr Castle Demesne, Co Offaly. It was the largest telescope in the world from 1845 to 1917.

The purpose of the telescope was to decide if nebulae were merely unresolved star clusters or genuinely nebulous regions of space. With the telescope, they discovered that several nebulae had a spiral structure, suggesting the operation of “dynamical laws”. Anyone who wanted to observe the spiral nature of galaxies travelled to Birr Castle Demesne from around the world.

The reflecting telepscope is 72 feet long with a mirror measuring 6 feet in diameter. It remained in operation until 1890 but, after the 4th Earl’s death in 1908, the telescope was partly dismantled and one of the mirrors with its mirror box was transferred to the Science Museum in London in 1914.

The telescope is not just a scientific instrument built using the most advanced  engineering techniques of its time. It was a symbol of human curiosity and innovation. Astronomical research continues at Birr Castle Demesne through its participation in I-LOFAR, an international radio telescope project co-ordinated in Ireland by Trinity College Dublin. The Earls of Rosse were obviously very wealthy gentleman scientists. Today this notion has become a little more inclusive with the development of the citizen sciences and citizen scientists.

Ireland has three historic observatories – Birr, Armagh and Dunsink – that remain active today. These three observatories have come together to seek UNESCO World Heritage listing so that they can be preserved and enjoyed by future generations.

 

 

Photographic specifications: This photo was taken with a lens with a focal length of 10 mm. Camera exposre settings were  ISO 100 f/11 and 1/80 s. It was edited in Lightroom.

© Kevin Balanda

 

This story / page is available in: German