Birr, Co. Offaly

The Statue of William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse. Lord Rosse carried out pioneering astronomical studies and discovered the spiral nature of some nebulas, today known to be spiral galaxies. In the 1840s, he built his "Leviathan of Parsonstown" 72-inch (183-cm) telescope at Birr, Ireland (then called "Parsonstown") in County Offaly, which was for many decades the largest telescope in the world. Birr Heritage Centre (previously known as John's Hall) can be seen in the background.