Birr Telescope

I went to the Leviathan telescope build mentioned below. Its impressive to walk (or fly as here) around to see its size, especially compared to Lord Rosse's previous telescope - also modeled here. To see animations of the scope it is necessary to pay L$300 and since I still have nothing but the initial L25 I couldn't do it. It does seem that the visitor can not interact with the telescope so it is like a 3-D museum display. Neat, but I hoped for more.

Classic Telescope in SL

For nearly a half century the largest telescope in the world was owned by a British noble, Lord Rosse. His giant telescope is famous for discovering the spiral nature of galaxies. Now it has been recreated in SL by Troy McConaghy. I haven't been there yet, but it is bringing to life a nearly mythical astronomical instrument, giving a feeling of its immense size - it was called the Leviathan! Of course, a telescope can't work in SL, but I suppose that there are simulated eyepiece views. Will add more here after I visit Lord Rosse's telescope.

More impressions

Just spent another hour or so looking around SL, supposedly at science sites.
There is nobody anywhere! These seem to be builds that attract no visitors.
And it is often difficult to figure out what is supposed to happen. It seems like far more effort is put into creating a nice 3-D construct than having any use for it.

I am on a quest for a worthwhile science site.
Suggestions?

Initial View of SL

When a new technology appears early uses typically reposition exiting materials to the new medium. This usually offers few benefits other than making information much more widely accessible than previously. A great example has been digitizing and posting of books online. I have found some historically important books on lunar science that I have never seen before. 

With virtual worlds - at least Second Life (SL), the one I am gaining experience with - the same repositioning is occurring. For example, Spaceport Alpha has amazing recreations of rockets but there is nothing to do with them except look. You can fly around them, seeing them from all sides, but basically they could be as informatively displayed on a website. 

I am interested in a higher level use of the affordances of SL. Can the ability to walk around something provide information about its position relative to other features that increases understanding? I am thinking along the lines of geologic stratigraphy. Can measures be made of (simulated) physical characteristics (magnetic fields, topography, spectral response) that permit analysis?  I want to find existing builds that do similar things and see how they do it and how well it works.