Caption: William Herschel (1738--1822), soldier, 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. He was born 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.

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) to support his research (No-398).

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.

Herschel was pioneer in the study of nebulae, the structure of the Milky Way, the construction of large reflector telescopes, and many other things.

He built the largest reflector telescope ever to his time, his 1.26-m telescope (with primary mirror diameter 1.26 m, of course). On its first night of use, 1789 Aug28, he discovered the 6th moon of Saturn, Enceladus.

One of Herschel greatest endeavors was a program to map the universe (No-399).

It was during the course of this program that he discovered Uranus on 1781 Mar13 using 6.2 inch reflector (No-399). Uranus is the first planet discovered in historic times. He called Georgium Sidus, but outside his adopted homeland that was considered too Britannic and the world settled eventually on Uranus.

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