William Herschel
The discoverer of the planet Uranus
William Herschel was born in
1738 in Germany. He followed
his father into the military band
in Hanover and later, at the age
of 19, migrated to Britain. He
played the oboe, the violin, the
harpsichord and the organ. He
composed numerous musical
works, including symphonies,
concertos and church music. His
music led him to an interest
in mathematics and lenses and
after
his
association
with
Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne,
his interest in astronomy grew
stronger by the day. Soon he
started
building
his
own
telescopes and would sometimes spend up to 16 hours a day
grinding and polishing the mirrors that are used in telescopes.
During 1773, he started gazing at planets and stars and in 1774
he commenced on documenting his observations in an
astronomical journal.
From there on, Herschel made many interesting observations and
discoveries pertaining to ‘binary stars’. However, it was in 1781
that he made his biggest discovery. While scanning the skies, he
noticed an object that appeared to be a non-stellar object that he
presumed was a comet or star. Later, Russian Academician Anders
Lexell computed the orbit and found it to be probably planetary
beyond Saturn. Herschel called the new planet the 'Georgian
star'. Later it was named ‘Herschel’ till the name 'Uranus' was
universally adopted. The same year, Herschel was awarded
the Copley Medal and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In
1782, he was appointed "The King’s Astronomer”.
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