Dunsink Observatory

The Dunsink Observatory (Irish Réadlann Dhun Sinche, " Observatory of Dunsink " ) is an astronomical observatory in the townland Dunsink ( Dun Sinche ) 8 km northwest of the center of Dublin ( Castleknock suburb ), which was opened in 1785. It is the oldest scientific institution in Ireland.

The observatory was built in 1783 and was since 1792 under the direction of Royal Astronomer of Ireland. It was also affiliated with the Trinity College ( Dublin) - the Astronomer Royal was until 1922 an honorary title of Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College. In South Dome outside the main building is a 12 - inch ( 30 cm) refractor built by Grubb in Dublin. It is called as Sir James South in 1862 the achromatic lens also donated South telescope. Model of the equatorial mount was the observatory in Dorpat ( Joseph Fraunhofer, 1824). Previously South had the lens in its own observatory in Kensington, from anger at what he considered unsuccessful execution after he pulled this off but the lens and donated to Trinity College. Today it serves mainly visitor purposes. Following the example of Dunsink ( Grubb, Parsons later) a number of other telescopes the company Grubb built.

The most famous astronomer of the observatory was William Rowan Hamilton. Hamilton discovered in 1843 on the march from Dublin to Dunsink the quaternions, what a plaque on the Broom Bridge reminds along the path. Other astronomers were Henry Ussher (1740-1790, first Andrews Professor of Astronomy in Trinity College ), Hermann Brück, John Brinkley ( Bishop of Cloyne, Astronomer Royal from 1790 to 1827 ).

Since 1947, it is the School of Cosmic Physics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies affiliated.

From 1880, here the official time for Ireland was measured before the 1916 Greenwich Mean Time was introduced in Ireland.