William Herschel

For other uses, see William Herschel (disambiguation).

Guards were recalled from England to defend Hanover.

After they were defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck,
Herschels father Isaak sent his two sons to seek refuge in
England in late 1757. Although his older brother Jakob
had received his dismissal from the Hanoverian Guards,
Wilhelm was accused of desertion[3] (for which he was
pardoned by George III in 1782).[4] Wilhelm, nineteen
years old at this time, was a quick student of the English
language. In England he went by the English rendition of
his name, Frederick William Herschel.

Sir Frederick William Herschel,[1] KH, FRS (German:

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 25
August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer,
composer, and brother of Caroline Herschel. Born in the
Electorate of Hanover, Herschel followed his father into
the Military Band of Hanover, before migrating to Great
Britain in 1757 at the age of nineteen.
Herschel constructed his rst large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys
to investigation of double stars. The resolving power of
the Herschel telescopes revealed that the nebulae in the
Messier catalogue were clusters of stars; Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and
in 1820 (5,000 objects). In the course of an observation
on 13 March 1781 he realized that one celestial body he
had observed was not a star, but a planet, Uranus. This
was the rst planet to be discovered since antiquity and
Herschel became famous overnight. As a result of this
discovery George III appointed him 'Court Astronomer'.
He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and grants
were provided for the construction of new telescopes.

In addition to the oboe, he played the violin and

harpsichord and later the organ. He composed numerous musical works, including 24 symphonies and many
concertos, as well as some church music. Six of his
symphonies were recorded in April 2002 by the London
Mozart Players, conducted by Matthias Bamert (Chandos
10048).

Herschel pioneered the use of astronomical spectrophotometry as a diagnostic tool, using prisms and temperature measuring equipment to measure the wavelength
distribution of stellar spectra. Other work included an
improved determination of the rotation period of Mars,
the discovery that the Martian polar caps vary seasonally,
the discovery of Titania and Oberon (moons of Uranus)
and Enceladus and Mimas (moons of Saturn). In addition, Herschel discovered infrared radiation. Herschel
was knighted in 1816. He died in August 1822, and his
Original manuscript of Symphony No. 15 in E at major (1762).
work was continued by his only son, John Herschel.

Herschel moved to Sunderland in 1761 when Charles

Avison immediately engaged him as rst violin and
soloist for his Newcastle orchestra, where he played for
one season. In Sunderland in the County of Durh: apprill
[sic] 20th 1761 he wrote his symphony No. 8 in c minor. He was head of the Durham Militia band 176061
and visited the home of Sir Ralph Milbanke at Halnaby
Hall in 1760, where he wrote two symphonies, as well as
giving performances himself.

Early life and musical activities

Herschel was born in the Electorate of Hanover in Germany, part of the Holy Roman Empire, one of ten children of Isaac Herschel by his marriage to Anna Ilse
Moritzen. His family were Lutheran Christians.[2] His
father was an oboist in the Hanover Military Band. In
1755 the Hanoverian Guards regiment, in whose band
Wilhelm and his brother Jakob were engaged as oboists,
was ordered to England. At the time the crowns of Great
Britain and Hanover were united under King George II.
As the threat of war with France loomed, the Hanoverian

After Newcastle he moved to Leeds and Halifax where he

was the rst organist at St John the Baptist church (now
Halifax Minster).[5] He became organist of the Octagon
Chapel, Bath, a fashionable chapel in a well-known spa,
in which city he was also Director of Public Concerts.
1

2 ASTRONOMY

He was appointed as the organist in 1766 and gave his introductory concert on 1 January 1767. As the organ was
still incomplete he showed o his versatility by performing his own compositions including a violin concerto, an
oboe concerto and a harpsichord sonata. The organ was
completed in October 1767.[6] His sister Caroline came
to England in 1772 and lived with him there in New King
Street, Bath. The house they shared is now the location
of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. His brothers Dietrich, Alexander and Jakob (17341792) also appeared
as musicians of Bath. In 1780, Herschel was appointed
director of the Bath orchestra, with his sister often appearing as soprano soloist.

Astronomy

Herschels mirror polisher, on display in the Science Museum,

London

2.1 Double stars

Herschels early observational work soon focused on the
search for pairs of stars that were very close together visually. Astronomers of the era expected that changes
over time in the apparent separation and relative location of these stars would provide evidence for both the
proper motion of stars and, by means of parallax shifts in
their separation, for the distance of stars from the Earth
(a method rst suggested by Galileo Galilei).[8] From the
back garden of his house in New King Street, Bath, and
using a 6.2-inch aperture (160 mm), 7-foot focal length
(2.1 m) (f/13) Newtonian telescope with a most capital
speculum of his own manufacture,[9] in October 1779,
Herschel began a systematic search for such stars among
every star in the Heavens, with new discoveries listed
through 1792. He soon discovered many more binary
and multiple stars than expected, and compiled them with
careful measurements of their relative positions in two
catalogues presented to the Royal Society in London in
1782 (269 double or multiple systems) and 1784 (434
systems). A third catalogue of discoveries made after
1783 was published in 1821 (145 systems).
Replica in the William Herschel Museum, Bath, of a telescope
similar to that with which Herschel discovered Uranus

Herschels music led him to an interest in mathematics

and lenses. His interest in astronomy grew stronger after he made the acquaintance of the English Astronomer
Royal Nevil Maskelyne. He started building his own
reecting telescopes and would spend up to 16 hours a
day grinding and polishing the speculum metal primary
mirrors.[7] He began to look at the planets and the stars
in May 1773 and on 1 March 1774 began an astronomical journal by noting his observations of Saturns rings
and the Great Orion Nebula (M 42).

In 1797 Herschel measured many of the systems again,

and discovered changes in their relative positions that
could not be attributed to the parallax caused by the
Earths orbit. He waited until 1802 (in Catalogue of
500 new Nebulae, nebulous Stars, planetary Nebulae, and
Clusters of Stars; with Remarks on the Construction of the
Heavens) to announce the hypothesis that the two stars
might be binary sidereal systems orbiting under mutual gravitational attraction, a hypothesis he conrmed in
1803 in his Account of the Changes that have happened,
during the last Twenty-ve Years, in the relative Situation of Double-stars; with an Investigation of the Cause
to which they are owing. In all, Herschel discovered over
800 conrmed[10] double or multiple star systems, almost

2.4

Work with his sister Caroline

all of them physical rather than virtual pairs. His theoretical and observational work provided the foundation for
modern binary star astronomy; new catalogues adding to
his work were not published until after 1820 by Friedrich
Wilhelm Struve, James South and John Herschel.

2.2

Uranus

Main article: Uranus History

3
over 2400 objects dened by him as nebulae. (At that
time, nebula was the generic term for any visually extended or diuse astronomical object, including galaxies
beyond the Milky Way, until galaxies were conrmed as
extragalactic systems by Edwin Hubble in 1924.)
Herschel published his discoveries as three catalogues:
Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of
Stars (1786), Catalogue of a Second Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (1789) and the previously cited
Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae ... (1802). He arranged
his discoveries under eight classes": (I) bright nebulae,
(II) faint nebulae, (III) very faint nebulae, (IV) planetary
nebulae, (V) very large nebulae, (VI) very compressed
and rich clusters of stars, (VII) compressed clusters of
small and large [faint and bright] stars, and (VIII) coarsely
scattered clusters of stars. Herschels discoveries were
supplemented by those of Caroline Herschel (11 objects)
and his son John Herschel (1754 objects) and published
by him as General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters in
1864. This catalogue was later edited by John Dreyer,
supplemented with discoveries by many other 19th century astronomers, and published in 1888 as the New General Catalogue (abbreviated NGC) of 7840 deep sky objects. The NGC numbering is still the most commonly
used identifying label for these celestial landmarks.

In March 1781, during his search for double stars, Herschel noticed an object appearing as a disk.[11] Herschel
originally thought it was a comet or a stellar disk, which he
believed he might actually resolve. He made many more
observations of it, and afterwards Russian Academician
Anders Lexell computed the orbit and found it to be
probably planetary.[12] Herschel determined in agreement
that it must be a planet beyond the orbit of Saturn.[13]
He called the new planet the 'Georgian star' (Georgium
sidus) after King George III, which also brought him
favour; the name did not stick. In France, where reference to the British king was to be avoided if possible, the
planet was known as 'Herschel' until 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 Kings
Astronomer (not to be confused with the Astronomer
Royal). He and his sister subsequently moved to Datchet 2.4
(then in Buckinghamshire but now in Berkshire) on 1 August 1782. He continued his work as a telescope maker
and achieved an international reputation for their manufacture, protably selling over 60 completed reectors to
British and Continental astronomers.[14]

2.3

Work with his sister Caroline

Deep sky surveys

NGC 2683 is an unbarred spiral galaxy discovered by William

Herschel on 5 February 1788.

From 1782 to 1802, and most intensively from 1783 to

1790, Herschel conducted systematic surveys in search
of deep sky or nonstellar objects with two 20-foot focal length (610 cm), 12-inch aperture (30 cm) and 18.7inch aperture (47 cm) telescopes (in combination with his
favoured 6-inch aperture instrument). Excluding dupli- William and Caroline Herschel polishing a telescope lens (probcated and lost entries, Herschel ultimately discovered ably a mirror), 1896 Lithograph.

4
In 1783 he gave Caroline a telescope, and she began to
make astronomical discoveries in her own right, particularly comets. She discovered or observed eight comets,
eleven nebulae and, at her brothers suggestion, updated
and corrected Flamsteeds work detailing the position of
stars. This was published as the British Catalogue of
Stars. She was honoured by the Royal Astronomical Society for this work. Caroline also continued to serve as
his assistant, often taking notes while he observed at the
telescope.

2 ASTRONOMY
telescope. On 28 August 1789, his rst night of observation using this instrument, he discovered a new moon of
Saturn. A second moon followed within the rst month of
observation. The 40-foot telescope proved very cumbersome, and most of his observations were done with
a smaller 18.5-inch (47 cm) 20-foot-focal-length (6.1
m) reector. Herschel discovered that unlled telescope
apertures can be used to obtain high angular resolution,
something which became the essential basis for interferometric imaging in astronomy (in particular Aperture
Masking Interferometry and hypertelescopes).

In June 1785, owing to damp conditions, he and Caroline moved to Clay Hall in Old Windsor. In 1786, the
Herschels moved to a new residence on Windsor Road 2.5.1 Reconstruction of the 20ft telescope
in Slough. He lived the rest of his life in this residence,
which came to be known as Observatory House. It is no In 2012, the BBC Stargazing Live television programme
longer standing.
built a replica of the 20-foot telescope using Herschels
On 7 May 1788, he married the widow Mary Pitt (ne original plans but modern materials. It is to be considBaldwin) at St Laurences Church, Upton in Slough. His ered a close modern approximation rather than an exact
sister Caroline then moved to separate lodgings, but con- replica. A modern glass mirror was used, the frame uses
metal scaolding and the tube is a sewer pipe. The teletinued to work as his assistant.
scope was shown on the programme in January 2013 and
stands on the art, design and technology campus of the
2.5 Herschels telescopes
University of Derby where it will be used for educational
purposes.[15]

2.6 Life on other celestial bodies

Herschel was sure that he had found ample evidence
of life on the Moon and compared it to the English
countryside.[16] He did not refrain himself from theorizing that the other planets were populated,[17] with an special interest in Mars, which was competely in line with
most of his contemporary scientists.[16] At Herschels
time, scientists tended to believe in a plurality of civilized
worlds, while most religious thinkers referred to unique
properties of the earth. [16] Herschel went so far to speculate that the interior of the sun was populated.[16]

2.7 Sunspots, climate, and wheat yields

Herschel started to examine the correlation of solar variation and solar cycle and climate.[18] Over a period of
40 years (17791818), Herschel had regularly observed
sunspots and their variations in number, form and size.
The 40-foot (12 m) telescope
Most of his observations took place in a period of low
See also: 40-foot telescope
solar activity, the Dalton minimum, when sunspots were
relatively few in number.[19] This was one of the reasons
identify the standard 11During his career, he constructed more than four hundred why Herschel was not able to
[19]
year
period
in
solar
activity.
Herschel compared his
telescopes. The largest and most famous of these was a
observations
with
the
series
of
wheat
prices published by
1
reecting telescope with a 49 2 -inch-diameter (1.26 m)
[20]
Adam
Smith
in
The
Wealth
of
Nations.
primary mirror and a 40-foot (12 m) focal length. Because of the poor reectivity of the speculum mirrors of 1801 Herschel reported his ndings to the Royal Socithat day, Herschel eliminated the small diagonal mirror of ety and indicated ve prolonged periods of few sunspots
a standard newtonian reector from his design and tilted correlated with the price wheat.[18] Herschels study was
his primary mirror so he could view the formed image di- ridiculed by some of his contemporaries but did initirectly. This design has come to be called the Herschelian ate further attempts to nd a correlation. Later in the

5
19th century, William Stanley Jevons proposed the 11- perimentation led to Herschels conclusion that there must
year- cycle and Herschels basic idea of a correlation be- be an invisible form of light beyond the visible spectrum.
tween low amount of sunspots and lower yields to explain
for recurring booms and slumps in the economy.[19] Herschels speculation on a connection between sunspots and 4 Biology
regional climate, using the market price of wheat as a
proxy continues to be cited regularly till today.
Herschel used a microscope to establish that coral was not
According to one study, the inuence of solar activity can a plant, as many believed at the time, since it lacked the
actually be seen in on the historical wheat market in Eng- cell walls characteristic of plants.[7]
land over ten solar cycles between 1600 and 1700.[19] The
evaluation is controversial,[21] and the signicance of the
correlation is doubted by some scientists.[22]

5 Family and death

2.8

Further discoveries

In his later career, Herschel discovered two moons of

Saturn, Mimas and Enceladus; as well as two moons of
Uranus, Titania and Oberon. He did not give these moons
their names; they were named by his son John in 1847 and
1852, respectively, after his death. Herschel measured
the axial tilt of Mars and discovered that the martian
ice caps, rst observed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini
(1666) and Christiaan Huygens (1672), changed size with
that planets seasons. It has been suggested that Herschel
might have discovered rings around Uranus.[23]

William Herschel and Mary had one child, John, born

at Observatory House on 7 March 1792. Williams personal background and rise as man of science had a profound impact on the upbringing of his son and grandchildren. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788.[26]
In 1816, William was made a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order by the Prince Regent and was accorded the
honorary title 'Sir' although this was not the equivalent of
an ocial British knighthood.[27] He helped to found the
Astronomical Society of London in 1820, which in 1831
received a royal charter and became the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1813, he was elected a foreign member
of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Herschel also coined the word "asteroid",[24] meaning

star-like (from the Greek asteroeides, aster star + -eidos
form, shape), in 1802 (shortly after Olbers discovered On 25 August 1822, Herschel died at Observatory House,
the second minor planet, 2 Pallas, in late March), to de- Windsor Road, Slough, and is buried at nearby St Lauscribe the star-like appearance of the small moons of the rences Church, Upton, Slough. Herschels epitaph is
giant planets and of the minor planets; the planets all show
discs, by comparison. By the 1850s 'asteroid' became a
Coelorum perrupit claustra.
standard term for describing certain minor planets.
(He broke through the barriers of the
heavens.)[28]
From studying the proper motion of stars, Herschel was
the rst to realise that the solar system is moving through
space, and he determined the approximate direction of
that movement. He also studied the structure of the Milky Herschels son John Herschel also became a famous asWay and concluded that it was in the shape of a disk. He tronomer. One of Williams brothers, Alexander Herincorrectly assumed the sun was in the centre of the disc, schel, moved permanently to England, near his sister
a theory known as Galactocentrism, which was eventually Caroline and nephew John. Caroline returned to Hanover
corrected by the ndings of Harlow Shapley in 1918.
after the death of her brother. She died on 9 January
1848.[29]

Discovery of infrared radiation

in sunlight

On 11 February 1800, Herschel was testing lters for the

sun so he could observe sun spots. When using a red
lter he found there was a lot of heat produced. Herschel discovered infrared radiation in sunlight by passing
it through a prism and holding a thermometer just beyond
the red end of the visible spectrum.[25] This thermometer
was meant to be a control to measure the ambient air temperature in the room. He was shocked when it showed a
higher temperature than the visible spectrum. Further ex-

His house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset where

he made many telescopes and rst observed Uranus, is
now home to the Herschel Museum of Astronomy.

6 Memorial
William Herschel lived most of his life in Slough, a town
then in Buckinghamshire. He died in the town and was
buried under the tower of the Church of St Laurence,
Upton-cum-Chalvey, near Slough. Herschel is very much
respected in the town and there are several memorials to
him and his discoveries. In 2011 a new bus station, the

8 NAMED AFTER HERSCHEL

design of which was inspired by the infrared experiment

of William Herschel, was built in the centre of Slough.[30]

Musical works

Herschels complete musical works were as follows:[31]

18 symphonies for small orchestra (17601762)
6 symphonies for large orchestra (17621764)
12 concertos for oboe, violin and viola (17591764)
2 concertos for organ
6 sonatas for violin, cello and harpsichord (published
1769)
12 solos for violin and basso continuo (1763)
24 capriccios and 1 sonata for solo violin
1 andante for two basset horns, two oboes, two horns William Herschel, portrait by James Sharples, c. 1805
and two bassoons.
Various vocal works including a "Te Deum", psalms,
motets and sacred chants along with some catches.
Keyboard works for organ and harpsichord:

The William Herschel Telescope on La Palma

6 fugues for organ

The Herschel Space Observatory, successfully

launched by the European Space Agency on 14 May
2009. It is the largest space telescope of its kind

24 sonatas for organ (10 now lost)

Herschel Grammar School, Slough

33 voluntaries and pieces for organ (incomplete)

Rue Herschel, a street in the 6th Arrondissement of

Paris.

24 pieces for organ (incomplete)

12 voluntaries (11 now lost)
12 sonatas for harpsichord (9 extant)
25 variations on an ascending scale
2 minuets for harpsichord

2000 Herschel, an asteroid

Named after Herschel

The astrological symbol for planet Uranus (
)
features the capital initial letter of Herschels surname.
Mu Cephei is also known as Herschels Garnet Star
Herschel, a crater on the Moon
Herschel, a large impact basin on Mars
The enormous crater Herschel on Saturn's moon
Mimas

The Herschel Building at Bath College, Bath

The Herschel building at Newcastle University,
Newcastle, United Kingdom
Herschel Museum of Astronomy, at 19 New King
Street in Bath.
Herschelschule, Hanover, Germany, a grammar
school
Herschel, Saskatchewan, Canada is a small, rural village that is home to the Ancient Echoes Interpretative Centre
The Herschel Observatory, at the Universitas School
in Santos, Brazil.
The lunar crater C. Herschel, the asteroid 281 Lucretia, and the comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet are
named after his sister Caroline Herschel.
The public house Herschel Arms at 22 Park Street,
Slough is named after him and is quite close to the
site of Observatory House.

7
Herschel Astronomical Society who operate the
Herschel Memorial Observatory based in Eton,
Berkshire.

[13] Astronomical League National Herschel Club

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel. Astroleague.org. Retrieved
on 5 June 2011.

Herschel Park, Slough.

[14] Mullaney, p. 14

The shape of Slough Bus Station, built in 2011, was

inspired by Herschels infrared experiment.[32]

[15] BBC builds William Herschels telescope for Stargazing

Live Ariel at BBC Learning, 10 January 2013

See also
List of astronomical instrument makers
List of largest optical telescopes historically
German inventors and discoverers
Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars

10

References

[1] Hoskin, M. (ed.) (2003) Caroline Herschels autobiographies, Science History Publications Cambridge, p. 13,
ISBN 0905193067.
[2] Lubbock, Constance Ann (1933). The Herschel Chronicle:
The Life-story of William Herschel and His Sister, Caroline
Herschel. CUP Archive. pp. 1.
[3] Hoskin, M. (2004). Was William Herschel a deserter?".
Journal for the History of Astronomy. 35, Part 3 (120):
356358. Bibcode:2004JHA....35..356H.
[4] Clerke, Agnes M (1908). A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century (4 (republished as
eBook number 28247) ed.). London (republished eText):
Adam and Charles Black (republished Project Gutenberg). p. 18. Archived from the original on 4 March
2009
[5] Halifax Minster.org - Organ History
[6] Bath. The British Society for the History of Mathematics. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
[7] The Light of Reason 8 August 2006 02:00 BBC Four
[8] Aitken, Robert (1935) The Binary Stars. McGraw-Hill,
pp. 49

[16] Civilized Life in the Universe : Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials, George Basalla, Professor of History University of Delaware (Emeritus), Oxford University Press,
20.12.2005, p.52
[17] Mars in Rekordnhe zur Erde. science.orf.at. The idea
of life on our neighbour planet [Mars] has inspired humans for a long time. The British astronomer Sir William
Herschel (17381822) assumed that there are intelligent
beings not only on Mars, but on all planets in our solar
system
[18] Herschel, W. (1801). Observations tending to investigate the nature of the Sun, in order to nd the causes or
symptoms of its variable emission of light and heat; With
remarks on the use that may possibly be drawn from solar observations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society London 91: 265318.
[19] 2003 Sun set food prices in the Middle Ages Changes
in solar activity sent wheat prices soaring in medieval
England. Nature doi:10.1038/news031215-12, article
of Philip Ball about Pustilnik, L. A. & Yom Din, G.
Inuence of solar activity on state of wheat market
in medieval England. Preprint, http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/
astro-ph/0312244, (2003).
[20] The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 5, The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Roy Porter,
Mary Jo Nye, Cambridge University Press, 2003. p. 508
[21] Surv Geophys (2012) 33:503534 DOI 10.1007/s10712012-9181-3 Solar Inuence on Global and Regional Climates, Mike Lockwood
[22] Love, J. J. (2013). On the insignicance of Herschels
sunspot correlation (PDF). Geophysical Research letters
40: 41714176. doi:10.1002/grl.50846.
[23] Rincon, Paul (18 April 2007). Uranus rings 'were seen
in 1700s". BBC News.

[11] Discovering New Planets at the Wayback Machine

(archived April 9, 2010). National Air and Space Museum.

[24] In an oral presentation(HAD Meeting with DPS, Denver, October 2013 - Abstracts of Papers. Retrieved 14
October 2013.), Cliord Cunningham presented his nding that the word has been coined by Charles Burney,
jr., the son of a friend of Herschel, see Local expert reveals who really coined the word 'asteroid'". South Florida
Sun-Sentinel. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 10 October
2013.. See also Wall, Mike (10 January 2011). Who
Really Invented the Word 'Asteroid' for Space Rocks?".
SPACE.com. Retrieved 10 October 2013.

[12] Kuhn, Thomas (1970) The Structure of Scientic Revolutions. The University of Chicago Press, p. 115, ISBN
0226458040.

[25] Michael Rowan-Robinson (2013). Night Vision: Exploring the Infrared Universe. p. 23. Cambridge University
Press,

[9] Mullaney, p. 10
[10] William Herschels Double Star Catalog. Handprint.com
(5 January 2011). Retrieved on 5 June 2011.

13

[26] Book of Members, 17802010: Chapter H (PDF).

American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 28
July 2014.
[27] Hanham, A. & Hoskin, M. (2013).
The Herschel Knighthoods: Facts and Fiction.
Journal
for the History of Astronomy 44 (120): 149164.
Bibcode:2013JHA....44..149H.
[28] Sir William Herschel Quotes - 14 Science Quotes. Dictionary of Science Quotations and Scientist Quotes. TODAYINSCI. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
[29] Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (17381822).
holl.de. Retrieved on 5 June 2011.

Manfred-

[30] Slough Council website 'Slough Bus Station'

EXTERNAL LINKS

Full text of The Story of the Herschels (1886) from

Project Gutenberg
Portraits of William Herschel at the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom)
Herschel Museum of Astronomy located in his Bath
home
William Herschel Society
The Oboe Concertos of Sir William Herschel, Wilbert
Davis Jerome ed. ISBN 0-87169-225-2
Works by or about William Herschel in libraries
(WorldCat catalog)

[31] WILLIAM HERSCHEL (17381822): Organ works.

asterope.bajaobs.hu. Retrieved 1 May 2013.

A notebook of Herschels, dated from 1759 is available in the digital collections of the Linda Hall Library.

[32] Serck, Linda (28 May 2011). Slough bus station: Silver dolphin or beached whale?". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13
August 2012.

Portraits of Wiliam Herschel from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Librarys Digital Collections

11

Michael Lemonick: William Herschel, the First Observational Cosmologist, 12 Nov 2008, Fermilab
Colloquium, Text

Sources

Holden, Edward S. (1881). Sir William Herschel,

his life and works. New York: Charles Scribners
Sons. Wikisource.
Mullaney, James (2007). The Herschel objects and
how to observe them. ISBN 978-0-387-68124-5.
Retrieved 5 June 2011.

12

Further reading

Holmes, Richard. The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and
Terror of Science (2009) ISBN 978-1-4000-3187-0
William Herschel by Michael Hoskin. New dictionary of Scientic Biography Scribners, 2008. v. 3,
pp. 289291.
Biography: JRASC 74 (1980) 134

13

External links

Works written by or about William Herschel at

Wikisource
William Herschels Deep Sky Catalog
The William Herschel Double Star Catalogs Restored
Full text of Herschel by Hector Macpherson.

Musical pieces by William Herschel @YouTube:

Chamber Symphony in F minor No. 4- Allegro moderato (I) on YouTube
Hubble Images to Herschel Music on YouTube
(Chamber Symphony in F, 2nd movement)
Richmond Sinfonia for Strings, Bassoon &
Harpsichord n. 2 in D major on YouTube
Sinfona para Cuerdas No. 8 en Do menor on
YouTube
Sinfonia n. 12, primo movimento, Allegro on
YouTube
Symphony No.
YouTube

8, I: Allegro Assai on

14
14.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

William Herschel Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel?oldid=674000514 Contributors: Magnus Manske, Mav, The

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File:HerschelTelescope.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/HerschelTelescope.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Mike Young
File:Herschel_40_foot.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Herschel_40_foot.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Scanned from Leisure Hour, Nov 2,1867, page 729 Original artist: Unknown
File:NGC_2683_HST.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/NGC_2683_HST.jpg License: CC BY 3.0
Contributors: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1213a/ Original artist: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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File:Sir_William_Herschel_and_Caroline_Herschel._Wellcome_V0002731.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
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symbol.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Lexicon
File:Uranus2.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Uranus2.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090119235457/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/milestones_show/slide1.html (image link)
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18182 (image link) Original artist: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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27s_Mirror-polisher.jpg License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net).
File:William_Herschel.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/William_Herschel.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Unknown Original artist: James Sharples (17511811)
File:William_Herschel_-_Symphony_No._15_-_British_Library_Add_MS_49626_f25r.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/b/bc/William_Herschel_-_Symphony_No._15_-_British_Library_Add_MS_49626_f25r.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Catalogue entry: Add MS 49626
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Original artist: William Herschel

File:William_Herschel_Signature.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/William_Herschel_Signature.
svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work by uploader, traced in Adobe Illustrator from http://www.scientificlib.com/en/
Astronomy/Biographies/images/WilliamHerschel01.jpg Original artist: Connormah, William Herschel

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