Crawford Observatory Donation Howard Grubb Large Spherometer

13 May 2025

Howard Grubb's legacy was honored when his original spherometer—used to test lenses and mirrors—was donated to UCC, linking the university to over a century of astronomical innovation.

The Crawford Observatory (built in 1878) on the UCC campus was designed by Howard Grubb from Dublin, who built all of the instruments it contains. There were at the very cutting edge of astronomical technology for their day.

During the first world war Grubb relocated to the UK (because of his military work) and subsequently joining forces with Charles Parsons (a son of the 3rd Earl of Rosse, who built the “Birr Leviathan”), a world famous engineer in his own right. The company, now Grubb-Parsons, continued to build telescopes for observatories around the world, until the 1980s.

The last chief optical engineer of Grubb-Parsons was David Sinden who died in 2005. David represented the end of a long line of technological innovation in optical engineering that started with the Grubbs in Dublin more than 100 years previously.

On May 24th,  David’s daughter, Caroline (Sinden-Fuller) and her husband Michael  visited UCC and donated a large spherometer, the device that Howard Grubb is using in the above image. Used to check the optical quality of his lenses and mirrors, which has been in their possesion (along with other material from the Grubb Parsons).

We are very grateful to them for their generosity in donating this device, which also recognises the unique historical importance of the telescopes in UCC. We are also very grateful to John Burgess (Arup) for linking Caroline and Michael with UCC, and for facilitating this event. It’s not often we have a visitor that can link us so directly to the work of Grubb and Ireland’s astronomical past.

Visitors Caroline Sinden-Fuller and her husband Michael with Professor Paul Callanan of Physics, UCC. 

2nd picture showing three instruments donated to the Observatory.