Telescope

Description

Contemporary wooden model of the Earl of Rosse's reflecting telescope with a three foot diameter speculum, showing the method of mounting it, made at Birr Castle, Ireland, c. 1840

Museum reference

T.1911.160

Collection

History of Science

Object name

Telescope, Model

Production information

Birr, County Offaly, Ireland, Northern Europe

Date

c. 1840

Materials

Wood

Physical description

Wood, lead, iron, brass

Associations

Constructor of original telescope: Parsons, William, 3rd Earl of Rosse, 1800 - 1867

Exhibitions

• Earth in Space (29 Jul 2011)
  National Museum of Scotland

References

J.E. Burnett and A.D. Morrison-Low, Vulgar & Mechanick: the Scientific Instrument Trade in Ireland, 1650 - 1921 (Edinburgh and Dublin, 1989), pp 89-94

Lord Oxmantown, 'Account of a series of experiments on the construction of large reflecting telescopes', Edinburgh Journal of Science 2 (1830), pp 136-44

Patrick Moore, The Astronomy of Birr Castle (London, 1971)

C. Mollan, W. Davis, B. Finucane (eds.), Some People and Places in Irish Science and Technology (Dublin, 1985), pp 84-7

On display

national museum of scotland »
level 1 »
natural world »
earth in space »
space (early telescopes)