William Herschel's Telescope

Although, Galileo did not invent the telescope, he is thought as the inventor of the telescope. Hans Lippershey was the person who invented the telescope in 1608. Galileo learned about the spyglass in 1609. He thought that learning about spyglass was so exciting and interesting. His interest of the spyglass led him to the discovery of improving the telescope. In order to discover deeper, Galileo began to experiment with making the telescope and polished the lenses of his own telescope to increase the range about eight to nine times further. Due to Galileo’s improvement of his telescope’s range, he was the first person to discover sunspots, to see the moon’s craters, and to keep on track of the phases of

Every night it was possible, he would sit and watch the stars with his sister Caroline, and his brother Alexander who came from Hanover. If the night was overcast, he would position a watchman should the clouds move, he was to be summoned so he could observe the stars. When the weather permitted he would watch the stars with his sister Caroline, who would record the information. In the daytime, he would monitor the construction of the telescopes, many of which he sold for income to supply for the operation. [1]“His largest instrument, too cumbersome for regular use, had a mirror made of speculum metal, with a diameter of 122 centimeters (48 inches) and a focal length of 12 meters (40 feet). Completed in 1789, it became one of the technical wonders of the 18th century.” His support mainly came from his sister, Caroline. Through countless hours of dedication and support from his sister he was able to accomplish much in his lifetime.

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

His sister was a huge part to the discovery she was a guide in a way. William Herschel was a musician for the army he became an amazing musician who learned the organ and wanted to learn music theory which then lead his to the telescope. He created his own mirrors after trial and error he was able to come up with one that was strong enough to see even farther into space. He asked questions about theory and music which lead to the mechanics of a telescope which then lead to more questions on how much light he could get in the scope. He was able to make mirrors big enough to get enough light to see even deeper into space. He notified one of his friends what he discovered and he pretty much helped him get famous by introducing him to a lot of

Frederick William Herschel was a British astronomer and composer. In 1774 he constructed his first telescope with which he spent the next 9 years studying the sky. After the completion of several catalogues, on March 13, 1781, he made an amazing discovery. The planet Uranus. This was an extraordinary discovery, and because of it, Herschel was made Court Astronomer by King George the Third, which was indeed a great honor. Later on he became the first President of the Royal Astronomer Society, in 1820. One of the key people leading to his Astronomy breakthroughs was Reverend John Michell, who was making ground-breaking views on astronomy and the construction of telescopes. Michell and Herschel met, as Herschel was a composer, and Michell was

William Herschel had a telescope and he loved searching the universe anything. He also had a sister that also searched the galaxies and enjoyed gazing into the night sky with a new perspective. On the night of Tuesday March 13, 1781 Herschel saw Uranus for the first time, even though he didn’t know it, yet. According to the article “Managing Expectations” written by Krupp he informs us that the first-time William saw Uranus he actually thought it was a comet. “Uranus was the first new planet to be found since antiquity, but at the outset it was not at all clear that a new world had been spotten. Herschel’s telescope provided the world’s best view of the new object, but even Herschel thought he had discovered a comet. (Krupp)” Herschel had to

Out of all of the discoveries I choose to do my research on the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781. Uranus was actually the first planet to be discovered since the beginning of the recorded history. Around this time the only planets that was recorded were the 5 that could be seen by the naked eye. William Herschel was a musician who was fascinated by astronomy and study many books about the subject. He was very different from other astronomers because he wasn’t interested in calculating planets orbits or charting down start positions, he enjoyed observing the stars, moons, and Sun. He also believed in extra-terrestrial intelligent life or in other words aliens. In this time period large telescopes weren’t available so Herschel

William Herschel is remembered as a great musician and astronomer of the late 1700’s. He is especially known for his discovery of Uranus in 1781. But with such limited technology, how was he able to make such a discovery? Well Herschel was a builder and seller of telescopes. Building off on Newton’s discovery that in a telescope “different colours, as they [pass] through the objective lens at the upper end of the tube, [are] bent (‘refracted’) by slightly different amounts and… [come] to a focus at slightly different distances from the objective” (Hoskin) creating an unclear, and distorted image. Herschel was able to fix this problem and create a telescope that would create a perfectly clear image. His solution was to “replace the lens [with]

William Herschel began looking into the heavens as a hobby, he worked regularly in music and only dabbled in astrology in his free time. He was frustrated with the inability to see things as clearly as he liked and it led him to develop a better telescope than was available at the time. He worked and created a better scope and by that was able to study the stars and five planets. The planets did not interest him as much as how the stars and such are formed. His main interests were in how things were created. He studied the clusters of stars. As he was able to see better and was able to chart the things he saw, he was able to notice and take note of Uranus. In the beginning, he believed it to be a comet, and reported it to astrologers in England. Their equipment was insufficient to see the “comet”. As they continued to watch they could document that it was indeed not a comet.

Since the time people have looked in the sky and studied stars, Uranus has been seen and know, but not as a planet, but instead as a star. Uranus was recorded in Hipparchus’ star catalogue (128 BC) as a star, and remained as a star until 1781 when William Herschel found something particular strange about the so called star.

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.

The discovery of Uranus in March of 1781 by William Herschel marked a pivotal point in history. It was the first planet in the modern era to be discovered. Previously, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were all discovered by the Romans and Greeks. Earth was not considered a planet at that time because it was believed that everything revolved around Earth. Herschel used the previous works of other astronomers, namely John Flamsteed, who thought that Uranus was just a part of a constellation which he cataloged as the star 34 Tauri. This discovery was the first planet identified by the use of a telescope. Since Uranus is difficult to see with the naked eye it was wondered if Uranus was a comet, star, or a planet. Many did

Many astronomers before him have observed Uranus but did not inspect farther. He had the curiosity to figure out

While the exact origin of the telescope is unknown, a German-Dutch spectacle maker by the name of Hans Lippershey is often credited with its invention. Lippershey filed for the earliest known patent for a refracting telescope (see refractors below) in 1608. Soon after, famed astronomer Galileo Galilei built a similar telescope which provided about 3x magnification. Galileo used this and other telescopes he constructed for observing the sky, among other things, and soon turned their manufacture into a profitable business. Galileo found that the devices were popular among merchants who found them valuable at sea and useful as items of trade. Galileo published his first set of astronomical observations in 1610 in a brief disquisition entitled “Starry Messenger”, and later made important discoveries such as the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter (now known as the Galilean moons), and the sunspots of our Sun.

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