The Great Birr 6 foot Telescope

Armagh Observatory

This contemporary photograph shows Lord Rosse's giant 6 foot telescope in its heyday with an observer situated on a gantry at the top of a wall. It used a rather crude mounting and could only observe close to the meridian. T.R. Robinson favoured an equatorial mounting for this telescope but it appears that Lord Rosse found this too difficult to implement for such a cumbersome telescope. Some of the workers at Birr with the Leviathan's mirror

See also:
The Telescope Restored Painting of the Leviathan - artist unknown. Birr Castle William Parsons A Short History of Armagh Observatory

Last Revised: 2010 February 22nd