Telescope, Birr Castle, Birr, Co Offaly, 1900

Installed in 1845 by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse on an ironwork structure constructed by his wife, the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’ remained the largest telescope in the world until 1917. Both Parsons and his heiress wife Mary, Countess of Rosse (née Field) were internationally acclaimed amateur astronomers and photographers. Their son Charles invented the steam turbine engine.