1781
William Herschel serendipitously observes Uranus, using a telescope to discover the first planet since antiquity.
Feature Image
An 1896 painting shows William and Caroline Herschel polishing telescope optics.
Alfred Diethe via Wellcome Collection
Curated Resources
“Uranus: The First Planet Discovered with a Telescope,” Science Museum, 13 August 2019
Jack White, “Herschel and the Puzzle of the Infrared”, American Scientist, pages 218-225, May-June 2012
Emily Winterburn, “Philomaths, Herschel, and the Myth of the Self-taught Man,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of the History of Science, 24 June 2014
Reginald Jones, “Through Music to the Stars: William Herschel, 1738-1822,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of the History of Science, 1 August 1978
William Ashworth, “William Herschel, Linda Hall Museum, 15 November 2016
William Ashworth, “William Herschel,” Linda Hall Museum, 15 November 2018
Julie Schröder, “Caroline Herschel,” FemBio
Emily Winterburn, “Caroline Herschel: Agency and Self-presentation,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of the History of Science, 19 November 2014
Emily Winterburn, “Learned Modesty and the First Lady’s Comet, A Commentary on Caroline Herschel (1787) ‘An Account of a New Comet,'” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 13 April 2015
William Herschel, “Account of a Comet,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, page 492-501, 1 January 1781
Caroline Herschel, “An account of a new comet. In a letter from Miss Caroline Herschel to Charles Blagden, M.D. Sec. R. S.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1 January 1787
Emily Winterburn, The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel: The Lost Heroine of Astronomy, 2017
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