James Baquet

    The astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822) was born in Germany, but moved to England at 19.

    Aside from his achievements as an astronomer, Herschel was also an accomplished musician who wrote over 200 pieces. When he first came to England as a member of a military band, King George II of England was also king of Hanover, where Herschel was born, so there was regular travel and commerce between the two.

    After working in England as a professional musician, he became interested in mathematics, and then in making lenses. This led him to begin a systematic survey of the night skies, with the crucial assistance of his younger sister Caroline.

    Night after night, the two siblings sat outside even in winter, pausing their work only when the sky was obscured by clouds. In the process, they discovered numerous binary and multiple stars, over 2400 objects he called “nebulae” (many of which are now known to be galaxies), and the planet Uranus.

    This last discovery was of untold importance. From ancient times, there were known to be seven “planets”: the sun (actually a star); the moon (a satellite of earth); and Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Although Uranus had been seen before (it can be seen with the naked eye on very clear nights) it was thought to be a star, because it is not as bright and clear as the nearer planets. In fact, Herschel first misidentified it as a comet.

    As the first person to identify a planet since antiquity, Herschel became an overnight sensation. He was not the only talent in the family, though; Caroline noted eight comets herself, and eleven nebulae. She published a catalog of the stars, and the Royal Astronomical Society honored her for her work.

    Herschel married rather late in life, at age 50, and he and his wife Mary had one son, John, who also became a noted astronomer and scientist and, like his father, a President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

    William Herschel died at age 83. His epitaph read “Coelorum perrupit claustra” — Latin for “He broke through the barriers of the heavens.”

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. hidden, covered up

    2. gave the wrong name to, mistook for something else

    3. limits, walls

    4. devices used for seeing more clearly

    5. “clouds” of stars

    6. ball of ice that circles the sun, leaving a “tail” behind it

    7. noticed, made a record of

    8. without a telescope

    9. important, essential

    10. brothers and/or sisters