Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse

Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse, was born at Birr Castle in 1840, the heir to a mansion already famous for the largest telescope of its day. He inherited that brass giant and the duty of aiming it at the Moon, though history still whispers his father's name more often than his own. Lawrence chafed under that shadow, failing to coat glass with copper for a flatter mirror and discovering NGC 2 instead. He died in 1908 still measuring the sky, the second Rosse earl to keep the lens clean and the star field honest.