For a general account of the astronomical work at Birr, see PatrickMoore, The astronomy of Birr Castle (London, 1971).
2.
MichaelHoskin, “Rosse, Robinson, and the resolution of the nebulae”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxi (1990), 331–44.
3.
See MichaelHoskin, “The first drawing of a spiral nebula”, ibid., xiii (1982), 97–101.
4.
“Very soon after, the spiral form of arrangement was detected; and our attention was then directed to the form of nebulae, the question of resolvability being a secondary object”, Rosse, “On the construction of specula of six-feet aperture; and a selection from the observations of nebulae made with them”, Philosophical transactions, cli (1861), 681–745, p. 703 [The scientific papers of William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse 1800–1867 (London, 1926; hereafter cited as Scientific papers), 125–89, p. 147].
5.
On the astronomers of Birr, see Appendix 1 of Moore, op. cit. (ref. 1).
6.
Rosse, “Observations of the nebulae”, Philosophical transactions, cxl (1850), 499–514 [Scientific papers, 109–24].
7.
Ibid., 503 [Scientific papers, 113].
8.
Ibid., 503 [Scientific papers, 113].
9.
Ibid., 503–4 [Scientific papers, 113–14].
10.
Ibid., 505 [Scientific papers, 115].
11.
Ibid., 506 [Scientific papers, 116].
12.
Ibid., 511 [Scientific papers, 121].
13.
See Hoskin, op. cit. (ref. 2).
14.
“Drawings to illustrate recent observations on nebulae, by the Earl of Rosse, with remarks by Rev. Dr. Robinson”, Report of the twenty-second Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (London, 1853), p. 22 of sectional matter [Scientific papers, 56–58].
15.
Rosse, op. cit. (ref. 4).
16.
See for example Astrophysical journal, xlvi (1917), 25.
17.
Lord Oxmantown [later fourth Earl of Rosse], “An account of the observations on the Great Nebula in Orion, made at Birr Castle, with the 3-feet and 6-feet telescopes, between 1848 and 1867”, Philosophical transactions, clviii (1868), 57–73 [Scientific papers, 190–206].
18.
Hoskin, op. cit. (ref. 2), 342.
19.
Rosse, “Observations of nebulae and clusters of stars made with the six-foot and three-foot reflectors at Birr Castle, from the year 1848 up to the year 1878”, Scientific transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, ser. 2, ii. Parts 1 and 2, pp. 1–64 and pp. 65–136 with Appendix pp. i-iv, issued August 1879; Part 3, pp. 137–78 with Appendix p. v issued June 1880. A new title page (to the whole work) and a slightly revised p. 1 were issued with Part 3; bookbinders have not all put the various supplementary pages and plates in the same order.
20.
On this see for example MichaelHoskin, Stellar astronomy: Historical essays (Chalfont St Giles, 1982), 156–7.
21.
“Original observations Aug 1874-Dec 1875”, item B.1.6 in the list of the Birr archives given in BennettJ. A.MichaelHoskin, “The Rosse papers and instruments”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xii (1981), 216–29.
22.
Reproduced as Appendix 6 of the Webb Society deep-sky observer's handbook, iv: Galaxies (Hillside, N.J., and Guildford and London, 1981).
