The Frontispiece.
THE GREAT ROSSE TELESCOPE.
The originator and architect of this magnificent instrument had long been distinguished in scientific research as Lord Oxmantown; and may be considered to have gracefully commemorated his succession to the Earldom of Rosse, and his Presidency of the Royal Society, by the completion of this marvellous work, with which his name will be hereafter indissolubly associated.
The Great Reflecting Telescope at Birr Castle (of which the Frontispiece represents a portion1) will be found fully described at pp. 96–99 of the present volume of Curiosities of Science.
This matchless instrument has already disclosed “forms of stellar arrangement indicating modes of dynamic action never before contemplated in celestial mechanics.” “In these departments of research,—the examination of the configurations of nebulæ, and the resolution of nebulæ into stars (says the Rev. Dr. Scoresby),—the six-feet speculum has had its grandest triumphs, and the noble artificer and observer the highest rewards of his talents and enterprise. Altogether, the quantity of work done during a period of about seven years—including a winter when a noble philanthropy for a starving population absorbed the keenest interests of science—has been decidedly great; and the new knowledge acquired concerning the handiwork of the great Creator amply satisfying of even sanguine expectation.”