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Updated: May 23, 2025
Lord Rosse's telescope was specially suited for the scrutiny of these objects, inasmuch as their delicacy required all the light-grasping power which could be provided. One of the greatest discoveries made by Lord Rosse, when his huge instrument was first turned towards the heavens, consisted in the detection of the spiral character of some of the nebulous forms.
The large telescopes of the old world those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault were invariably fixed upon the Queen of Night, for the weather was magnificent in Europe, but the relative weakness of these instruments prevented any useful observation. On the 6th the same weather reigned. Impatience devoured three parts of the globe.
The first, constructed by Herschel, was thirty-six feet in length, and had an object-glass of four feet six inches; it possessed a magnifying power of 6,000. The second was raised in Ireland, in Parsonstown Park, and belongs to Lord Rosse.
"Ah, ah! vous êtes le Sabreur anglais qui avez rossé mes gens, l
It is therefore an interesting fact that Hermann Rosse, the artist who painted this imposing work, and, indeed, designed the entire interior decoration of the pavilion, was also muralist and decorator of the Palace of Peace.
The latter, in the hands of the two Herschels and Rosse, had reached its utmost limits as is shown by the fact that to this day the Rosse telescope is the largest of its kind in the world. Meanwhile the production of refracting telescopes made but slow progress. As late as 1836 the largest instrument of this kind in the world was the eleven-inch telescope of the observatory at Munich.
In telescopes it has been seen that the glass placed at the observer's eye produces the magnifying power, and the object-glass which bears this power the best is the one that has the largest diameter and the greatest focal distance. In order to magnify 48,000 times it must be much larger than those of Herschel and Lord Rosse.
Such was the renown of Lord Rosse himself, brought about by his consummate mechanical genius and his astronomical discoveries, and such the interest which gathered around the marvellous workshops at Birr castle, wherein his monumental exhibitions of optical skill were constructed, that visitors thronged to see him from all parts of the world.
Lord Rosse produced his card, and gently explained that he was not exactly the right man, but he appreciated the compliment, and this led to a pleasant dinner, and was the basis of a long friendship. I remember on one occasion hearing Lord Rosse explain how it was that he came to devote his attention to astronomy.
In the Rosse mirror it shone out as a vast whirlpool of light a stupendous witness to the presence of cosmical activities on the grandest scale, yet regulated by laws as to the nature of which we are profoundly ignorant.
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