Caption: William Herschel (1738--1822), soldier (OK, he was an oboist in the Hanover army band (original version)), composer, conductor, astronomer. Herschel was the greatest observational astronomer of the 18th century and early 19th century and one of the great visionaries of astronomy.

Features:

1. Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany and in 1757 migrated to England---deserting from Hanoverian Guards---he was oboist in the military band---which in those days went into battle.

2. In England---which was then under the Hanoverian dynasty---he worked in the musical profession initially, but he gradually developed into a full-time astronomer and was given a pension by George III (1738--1820, reigned 1760--1820) to support his research (No-398).

3. His sister Caroline Herschel (1750--1848) assisted him and became a significant observer on her own. She was also given a royal pension (No-399)---you see, George III was really a good guy and NOT a tyrant at all.

4. Herschel was pioneer in the study of nebulae (historical usage), the structure of the Milky Way, the construction of large reflector telescopes, and many other things. For Herschel's work on reflector telescopes, see Telescope file: telescope_william_herschel.html.

5. Herschel built the largest reflector telescope ever to his time, the 40-foot telescope (reflector, primary diameter 1.22 m ≅ 48 inches, operational 1787--1815). The 40-foot telescope was probably used in the discovery (though maybe in combination with Herschel's other telescopes) in 1789 of Enceladus and Mimas, the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn (Wikipedia: 40-foot telescope: Use; Wikipedia: Discovery: Enceladus; Wikipedia: Mimas: Discovery).

6. One of Herschel greatest endeavors was a program to map the Milky Way using star counts which he called star gages (Wikipedia: William_Herschel: Deep sky surveys; No-399,408--409; Timberlake 2011).

   It was during the course of this program that he discovered Uranus on 1781 Mar13 using his small reflector (primary diameter 6.2 inches ≅ 15.75 cm) (No-399). Uranus is the first planet discovered in historical times (c.3000 BCE--). The prehistorical planets (i.e., Mercury ☿, Venus ♀, Mars ♂, Jupiter ♃, Saturn ♄) were all known since indefinitely way back in prehistory (?--c.3000 BCE).

   Herschel called new planet Georgium Sidus, but outside his adopted homeland (i.e., Great Britain) that was considered too Britannic and the world settled eventually on Uranus.

7. Herschel also discovered infrared radiation, the first form of non-visible light on 1800 Feb11.

8. See also:
   William Herschel videos (i.e., William Herschel (1738--1822) videos):
   1. William Herschel (1738-1822) - Symphony No 12 in D Major, 2nd movmment | 4:26--11:30: From William Herschel's (1738--1822) day job. A few minutes is OK for the classroom.
   2. NOVA Short: Founders of Modern Astronomy, William Herschel (1738--1822) | 4:23: Herschel and helpmeet Caroline Herschel (1750--1848). Too long for the classroom.
   3. Sir William Herschel: infrared radiation and its applications | 9:55: Herschel also discovered infrared in 1800.

Credit/Permission: Lemuel Francis Abbott (c.1760--1802), 1785 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:%E9%9C%A7%E6%9C%A8%E8%AB%92%E4%BA%8C, 2005) / Public domain.
Image link: Wikipedia: File:William Herschel01.jpg.
Local file: local link: william_herschel.html.
File: Astronomer file: william_herschel.html.