William Parsons, 3d earl of Rosse, Lord Rosse, Lord Oxmantown
1800–67
Astronomer. Styled Lord Oxmantown from 1801. Constructed a telescope with a 72-inch disc at Birr Castle, Ireland, in 1845. Made important observations on nebulae. President of the Royal Society, 1848–54. Appointed chancellor of the University of Dublin in 1862. Succeeded as 3d earl of Rosse in 1841. FRS 1831.
Sources
DSB
ODNB.
Bibliography
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
letter
