Essay On William Herschel

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer who believed in the heliocentric theory. Kepler is a clear example of the narrow line that separated science and religion. Nonetheless, his ideas would show that things could be solved through reason alone. He believed that the harmony of the human soul could be found through numerical relationships that existed between planets. He found that the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved at different times. For example, the earth revolved around the sun in a year while Saturn revolved around the sun in fifty years. From this, Kepler found a mathematical ratio, nine to the two-thirds power, to explain this phenomenon. This was revolutionary to humanity’s place in the universe. People were shocked that the universe could be explained by math alone rather than religion. This went strongly

Sir William Herschel accomplished a lot for astronomy. In 1781 he was able to discover Uranus with his own homemade telescope. With the help of his sister, he was also able to discover over 2,500 celestial bodies that are still being used today. It was the first planet discovered that could not be seen with the naked eye. Herschel wanted to name it after the king, but other astronomers did not agree. So they named it

William Herschel didn’t start out his life and career interested in space and the stars. He started as a music teacher and musician. He was in his 30s before he started asking questions and looking at the stars. I think Herschel’s motivation came from wanting to learn more about the world around him and reading. While Herschel was still a musician, he read “Opticks by Robert Smith”1. In the books last few chapters, Smith talked about “Telescopial

Herschel just happened to be studying the stars between 10-11pm. What he did not expect was to find a planet on that fateful night. Herschel thought that what he had spotted was a big star, but then decided that it was a comet. However, he quickly realized that this was no star, it was much more! In this situation, technology made all the difference. Without these high-powered magnifiers, it would have been easily forgotten. Once he formed a hypothesis, how tried to figure out what the planet was not. It was much larger than the other planets. Once he realized that this was an actual planet, he wrote a letter to his colleague about it. This was an exciting discovery for 1787! It was the first planet to be discovered in a more modern

In March of 1781 William Herschel, a musician and amateur astronomer discovered what would eventually be called “Uranus.” He discovered what he initially thought was a comet, while looking for what he called double stars. He ended up finding Uranus as it passed by one of the stars he was looking at. He recorded is in a journal, and after a few days looked for it again. He was able to see that it was moving and that it appeared to have an orbit. He contacted some friends of his that were astronomers and gave them the work that had done and wanted to them to explore it further than he could. They ended up finding the same thing and also classifying it as a comet, probably a comet called 1770, and congratulating him on his discovery. It wasn’t

The discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781 was a surprise to the professional astronomers of the day. William was an amateur astronomer and he made his own telescopes. He was looking at the night sky and he was looking at what others had noted was another star. With his better equipment, he could see that it was not a star but a planet. He wanted to name the planet after King George III of England. It was decided that is was going to be named after the Greek gods. It got the name of Uranus who was the father of Saturn according to mythology. It took a few years for that name to stick but when it did, the rest was history. William did get a paid as a professional astronomer after his discovery. That is good advice for all of us: Do

Bode has many other contributions to astronomy. He found, in total, four different celestial bodies and “rediscovered” three others. He discovered M81, a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major; M82, an irregular galaxy also in Ursa Major; M53, a globular cluster in Coma Berenices; M92, another globular cluster, in Hercules; M64, a spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, this one was discovered by Edward Pigott then Bode rediscovered it 12 days later; M48, an open cluster in Hydra, discovered by Charles Messier; and IC4665, an open open cluster in Ophiuchus, discovered by De Cheseaux. Also, in 1776 Bode created his version of the theory of the solar constitution. Later in 1795, Sir William Herschel created his theory of the theory of the solar constitution by tweaking Bode’s version to fit his beliefs. Bode is the man whom came up with the planet name “Uranus” and it has been called that ever since.

William Herschel was a musician and an astronomer. The motivation that drove William Herschel to the discovery of Uranus was his obsession with astronomy and the heavens. He charted the stars with a telescope he built himself, he then discovered a “comet” which really was the planet Uranus, but he initially didn’t realize it. He noticed the “comet” had moved and decided that his annotations on the position of the “comet” had been written down incorrectly. Herschel wanted to know the dimensions, and position of the “comet”. He carefully measured the location and diameter of the comet for some time and discovered its journey as parallax to “our side of the sun” on a daily basis. In 1782 Herschel finally called the comet his planet. The knowledge

Brahe portrayed the humanist ideal observation by revising previous theories and scientific tools throughout his career. Three discoveries attributed to Tycho Brahe include how the earth's position is viewed in the universe, mapping of celestial bodies, and his creation of accurate scientific instruments. Before the Renaissance, many scientists believed in the geocentric theory, or the belief that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and other stars revolved around earth. Tycho proved that the path of the comet of 1577 was not circular, but elongated, meaning that it would be impossible according to the geocentric theory. This discovery influenced the ways scientists viewed the location of planets and stars. Tycho viewed and observed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia that lay beyond the moon and was in the realm of fixed stars. This discovery of the new star influenced the way scientists mapped all celestial bodies. Brahe was one of the first astronomers to realize the importance of error of instrumentation. He believed that some of the errors in the astronomical works of famous Renaissance astronomers were due to poor instrumentation. He was able to develop new instruments to plot his research that were massive improvements on the previous tables and tools used. His designs for new methods and instruments won him great fame. These discoveries continue to influence the way scientists view the universe

Herschel began to use the small telescopes they had in those days in order to observe the sky. These telescopes could only see so far, which made Herschel very frustrated because he could not see the stars and the planets as well as he would have liked to. In 1773, Herschel started to build his own telescope with the help of his siblings. His telescope became more advanced than the telescopes that were available at that time and was able to see farther into

    Astronomy, the field pertaining to the study of space and the objects that exist within it, is a constantly developing science. Beginning in ancient times, humans would rely on astronomy to observe the positions of the moon and stars in order to measure time and direction ("Astronomy", sec. 1). Up until the mid-16th century, the widespread belief among Europeans was that the stars and other celestial bodies orbit the Earth, a theory established by the astronomer Ptolemy (Furlong 80). With the limited technology available at their time, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory was left largely untested, at least until the dawn of the Scientific Revolution. During the Scientific Revolution, a period of several hundred years where science developed to greater resemble our modern practices rather than the more religious and philosophical mindset of the time prior, notable scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton made major discoveries in fields such as astronomy. This revolution started with the development of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory of the structure of the solar system, which directly contradicted the accepted beliefs of the time ("Scientific Revolution"). In the beginning of the 17th century, Galileo designed and constructed an improved telescope, which he used to make significant astronomical discoveries that

The use of the telescope led him to discover new characteristics of space and the solar system. He discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons and the rings of Saturn. He also discovered that the Milky Way galaxy is comprised of stars. The observation of mountains on the moon was made by Galileo as well. He also made numerous discoveries within these discoveries.

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three

In 1609, Galileo Galilei, using “spyglass” which allowed one to see things closer than they appeared, made an early version of the telescope. With it, he observed the skies in a way no one had before. He discovered the moon isn’t perfectly globular, it has craters, the Sun has sunspots, Venus orbits the Sun (contrary to widespread belief in his time), and then he observed four “stars” around Jupiter (“Our Solar System”). Within

Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets, as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time.