Spiral galaxies Leviathan of Parsonstown Nebulae Commentary

William Parsons astronomy

Spiral galaxies

• William Parsons, third earl of Rosse,
• built his own telescope
• on the grounds of his castle
• with a seventy-two-inch speculum metal mirror
• to examine the nebulae
• those fuzzy objects in the night sky
• recorded by Ptolemy and later astronomers
• who didn’t understand what they were seeing.
• Rosse made meticulous drawings in pencil
• showing delicate spiral patterns
• but it took another 79 years
• for astronomers with even larger telescopes
• to distinguish giant stars
• in the spiral arms.

Leviathan of Parsonstown

• From 1845 until 1917,
• Parsons’ was the largest telescope
• in the world. As ever,
• extreme wealth and much time
• can accomplish great things,
• and money can save time.

Nebulae

• Given our finest instruments
• a doctor cannot sketch
• the difficulty of a body.
• The organs too remote,
• the parts too tiny,
• too hidden, too complex,
• too sensitive to measure,
• too complex for reason to fathom,
• too miraculous when it is well,
• too dreadful when it malfunctions.
• We make our own instruments
• made of hope and luck,
• made of listening, made of caring.
• If these means also fail,
• then it is difficult to imagine better
• but easy to suffer the lack.