2-320-875 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lord Rosse's telescope, Birr, Offaly, Ireland, 1924-1926. William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800-1867), Irish astronomer and engineer, built what was then the largest telescope in the world on his estate at Birr (then known as Parsonstown), Ireland. The instrument was known as 'the Leviathan of Parsonstown'. With it Lord Rosse discovered 15 spiral nebulae, and named the Crab nebula. A print from Hutchinson's Britain Beautiful, edited by Walter Hutchinson, volume III, 1924-1926.