A Photograph of Mary Field. At the side of her an example of the camera she used.
The guest speaker at the December monthly meeting of Keighley Astronomical society was Mr Keith Berrington. His presentation was entitled. “The Rosse Telescope and the Shipley connection”.
Mr Berrington explained that for over a century, astronomers have raced to build telescopes with larger and larger apertures precisely so that they could gather more of the heavens’ light. In essence, a large lens or mirror allows scientists to look deeper into space and see fainter objects. An early example of this thirst for photons is the Leviathan of Parsonstown, a six-foot-diameter telescope built in the 1840s by William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse.
Society secretary Dominic Curran welcomes Mr Mr Berrington to Keighley Astronomical society.
For many years, Lord Rosse studied the night sky using his 36-inch telescope at Birr Castle in Ireland. The objects which interested him most were called “nebulae,” a term that once referred to any fuzzy object in the sky. At that time, it was not known that these so-called nebulae were actually an assortment of different objects ranging from star clusters and galaxies to clouds of gas and dust. The telescopes of Parsons’s day were simply not powerful enough to resolve the mysterious wisps of light.
The great telescope as photographed by Mary field in 1857 from the south-east, the stage of the first gallery slightly raised. The instrument’s scale is demonstrated by groups of figures: to the right of the telescope as viewed, the Earl of Rosse stands with two of his children; to the left of the instrument two gentlemen stand on a raised platform.
Consequently, an outstanding question in astronomy arose: “Do nebulae contain stars?” Knowing that a larger instrument was needed to resolve this issue, Lord Rosse set out to build a six-foot telescope. All that stood in his way were a number of remarkable feats of engineering that would have to be performed to build such a device.
Today it is possible to create telescope mirrors in excess of 30 feet by coating a glass surface with a reflective metal. In the late 1800s, however, mirrors were made using the much heavier and more problematic speculum metal. This copper and tin alloy is not only difficult to cast and shape, but also quick to tarnish in humid climates such as Ireland’s. However, after three attempts using large peat-fired furnaces, Lord Rosse and his men succeeded in creating the world’s largest telescope mirror. In actuality, two mirrors were made: a backup was necessary because the speculum’s sensitive nature required the mirror to be resurfaced every six months.
The third Earl of Rosse, photographed by the Countess of Rosse Mary Field.
Dubbed the Leviathan of Parsonstown, Lord Rosse’s reflecting telescope remained the largest in the world for over 75 years. However, the instrument was not without its drawbacks. To accommodate such a large telescope, a unique mounting system was employed which restricted motion in the east-west direction.
This mount was the first and last of its kind, and, with a fortress-like appearance, it remains quite impressive. The 58-foot telescope tube is suspended between two stone walls, 70-feet-long and 50-feet-high. At the top of these walls, which protect the instrument from high winds, is a movable observing platform. From here Lord Rosse spent many cold nights drawing the elaborate celestial structures revealed to him.
A pencil drawing of the competed 72 inch great telescope.
At first, the majority of observations taken were of the Moon and several of the planets. While the instrument exposed our solar system in greater detail than ever, the most important discovery made at Parsonstown was that of the spiral nature of the M51 nebula. Now known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 was the first categorized spiral object. While Lord Rosse correctly observed M51 to be “studded with stars,” the debate over the true characteristics of nebulae lingered, and it was not until the 1920s that Edwin Hubble recognized some of the fuzzy objects to be galaxies like our Milky Way.
The great telescope photgrapghed by Mary Field from the south, showing the position of the telescope when a man enters the tube to fix the small speculum and remove the cover of the large mirror. The Earl of Rosse is standing in the telescope tube. A group of four other figures are on, or in front of, a mobile platform on rails. These include two of Rosse’s children, Clere Parsons standing and Charles Algernon Parsons seated on the platform rail near two male observers.
Nevertheless, the Leviathan is a testament to Parsons’ skills in engineering, optics, and astronomy. In fact, for one galaxy, the Earl’s hand-drawn illustrations contain more detail than a photograph taken with the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory a century later. Continuing in his father’s footsteps, the fourth Earl of Rosse, used the telescope for his own observations. The instrument fell into disuse in 1878, however, and was dismantled in 1908.
A painting of Lord and Lady Rosse discussing the images of Nebula they had drawn whilst using the telescopes at Birr Castle.
Thanks to the seventh and present Earl, the telescope was reconstructed in the late 1990s with a new mirror and motors to make pointing easier. Observations continue even today, as amateur astronomers often peer through the Leviathan. Ireland’s Historic Science Centre also resides at the castle, where a large collection of astronomical instruments and artifacts are on display.
But to catch a glimpse of the original speculum mirror, you must travel to the London Science Museum.
The Great telescope photographed by Mary Field from the North. Showing the manually operated device to raise and lower the telescope.
Mr Berrington explained that the connection with Shipley was the wife of Lord Rosse, Mary field.Mary Field was born in Britain in 1813, in Yorkshire, the daughter of John Wilmer Field, a wealthy estate owner, holding land in both Shipley and nearby Heaton. Through her family she met William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, and they were married on 14th April 1836.
A pencil drawing of M51 ‘The whirlpool Nebula’ by Lord Rosse. Note the numbers recorded. They are individual stars within the nebula that the Great telescope was able to resolve.
In the early 1840s the couple became interested in astronomy, and Mary helped her husband build a giant telescope, the Leviathan . I was considered a technical marvel in its time. She was an accomplished blacksmith, which was very unusual for higher class women of this time. Much of the iron work that supported the telescope was constructed by her.
During the Great famine of 1845-47 work using the telescopes diminished she and her husband were responsible for keeping over five hundred men employed in work in and around Birr castle.
The countess of Rosse gave birth to eleven children, but only four survived until adulthood. After the death of husband in 1867 Mary Field returned to her estates in Shipley and Heaton and resided at Heaton hall until her death in 1885.
Also at the meeting was Mr Brian Jones who was promoting his latest publication. The Astronomy yearbook 2018.
In 1842 William Parsons began experimenting in photography, possibly learning some of the art from his acquaintance William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1854 Lord Rosse wrote to Fox Talbot saying that Lady Rosse too had just commenced photography, and sent some examples of her work. Fox Talbot replied that some of her photographs of the telescope “are all that can be desired”. Lady Rosse became a member of the Dublin.
Photographic Society, and in 1859 she received a silver medal for “best paper negative” from the Photographic Society of Ireland. Many examples of her photography are in the Birr Castle Archives. Much of the topography of Birr Castle that she portrayed has changed very little, and it is possible to compare many of her photographs with the actual places.
Sir Patrick Moor at Birr Castle in 1985.