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Caroline Herschel, German-born British astronomer who was a pioneer in the field. She made important contributions to the work of her brother Sir William Herschel, and, on her own, she became the first woman to discover a comet (1786). She also detected three nebulae in 1783.
- William Herschel
William Herschel (born November 15, 1738, Hannover,...
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- William Herschel
William Herschel was one of the first 'professional' astronomers, and discovered infrared radiation. His sister Caroline helped him to develop the modern mathematical approach to astronomy. William, son of a musician, was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1738.
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William Herschel (born November 15, 1738, Hannover, Hanover—died August 25, 1822, Slough, Buckinghamshire, England) German-born British astronomer, the founder of sidereal astronomy for the systematic observation of the stars and nebulae beyond the solar system. He discovered the planet Uranus, hypothesized that nebulae are composed of stars, and d...
Herschel’s father was an army musician. Following the same profession, the boy played in the band of the Hanoverian Guards. After the French occupation of Hanover in 1757, he escaped to England, where at first he earned a living by copying music. But he steadily improved his position by becoming a music teacher, performer, and composer, until in 1766 he was appointed organist of a fashionable chapel in Bath, the well-known spa. By this time, the intellectual curiosity he had acquired from his father led him from the practice to the theory of music, which he studied in Robert Smith’s Harmonics. From this book he turned to Smith’s A Compleat System of Opticks, which introduced him to the techniques of telescope construction and whetted his appetite for viewing the night sky.
Combining obstinacy with boundless energy, William was not content to observe the nearby Sun, Moon, and planets, as did nearly all astronomers of his day, but was determined to study the distant celestial bodies as well, and he realized he would need telescopes with large mirrors to collect enough light—larger, in fact, than opticians could supply at reasonable cost. He was soon forced to grind his own mirrors. They were ground from metal disks of copper, tin, and antimony in various proportions. In 1781 his ambitions outran the capacities of the local foundries, and so he prepared to cast molten metal into disks in the basement of his own home, but the first mirror cracked on cooling, and on the second attempt the metal ran out onto the flagstones, after which even he accepted temporary defeat. His later and more successful attempts produced ever larger mirrors of superb quality, and his telescopes proved far superior even to those used at the Greenwich Observatory. He also made his own eyepieces, the strongest with a magnifying power of 5,787 times (when used with a telescope with a 7-foot [2.1-metre] focal length).
At Bath, he was helped in his researches by his brother Alexander, who had come from Hanover, and his sister, Caroline, who was his faithful assistant through much of his career. News of this extraordinary household began to spread in scientific circles. He made two preliminary telescopic surveys of the heavens. Then, in 1781, during his third and most complete survey of the night sky, William came upon an object that he realized was not an ordinary star.
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It proved to be the planet Uranus, the first planet to be discovered since prehistoric times. William became famous almost overnight. His friend Dr. William Watson, Jr., introduced him to the Royal Society of London, which awarded him the Copley Medal for the discovery of Uranus, and elected him a Fellow. Watson also helped him to secure in 1782 an annual pension of £200 from George III. He could thus give up music and devote himself exclusively to astronomy. At this time William was appointed as an astronomer to George III, and the Herschels moved to Datchet, near Windsor Castle.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Caroline Lucretia Herschel (/ ˈ h ɜːr ʃ əl, ˈ h ɛər-/; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German-born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which bears her name.
Nov 16, 2017 · The memoirs she wrote offer great insight into astronomy in Georgian England. Today Caroline Herschel is frequently invoked as an empowering symbol for female scientists. In 1839, 17 years after William Herschel’s death, the 40-foot telescope was disassembled for fear it would collapse under its own weight.
Sep 4, 2012 · In his mid-30s, William Herschel's interest in astronomy took off. Caroline worked as his assistant, helping him to polish mirrors while building his own telescope. William discovered the...
Caroline Herschel was the sister and assistant of William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus. She was the first professional woman astronomer, who discovered or co-discovered eight comets and 14 nebulae, and received the Royal Astronomical Society's Gold Medal.
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