Subject: [72attendees] Daytrip to Birr Castle: largest telescope from 1845 to 1917

From: Lisa Dusseault <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:52:22 +0100

A nice drive out of Dublin (1.5 to 2 hrs) is Birr historic town and  
the Birr Castle Demesne.  Of particular interest to this crowd, I  
suspect, is a spectacular telescope on the castle grounds.  It was  
built by the 3rd Earl of Rosse and attracted scientific visitors from  
around the world.  As soon as it was functional the Earl started to  
identify various nebulae as distant galaxies, resolving astronomical  
disputes of the time. He painstakingly and accurately drew what he saw  
(pre-photography!) and some of his drawings are also on view.  The  
telescope was restored in the 90s after decades of disuse and can even  
be used today though it's not moved often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birr_Castle

I didn't get time yesterday to look at everything I wanted to see, but  
there's a historic science museum with the drawings, plus we heard  
praise for the formal garden from other visitors, and the historic  
town sounds interesting too, so it might be worthwhile planning for  
several hours in Birr if you go to see the telescope.  The castle  
visitor center has a cafe with nice big mugs of cappucino and lunch or  
snack food.

To get there, travel west on M7 to Port Laoise.  From there, consider  
heading off the main highway onto the forest roads through the Slieve  
Bloom -- head through Mountrath and over the mountains to Kinnitty  
which is just a few km from Birr.  Many walking paths and picnic areas  
all over the Slieve Bloom, and although we quickly got lost it was no  
big deal -- we just kept driving until we found a wider road then a  
town.

http://www.slievebloom.ie/

Lisa
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