Percival Per.5
Astronomy
January 5, 2014
William Herschel
Its a bird! Its a comet! Its a planet? A renowned astronomer from the mid 1700s to the early 1800s, Frederick William Herschel was born on November 15, 1738 in Hannover, Germany. Brought up as a Protestant, during a time of religious dispute, William's education was meager however enough to become a very skilled musician and mathematician. Beginning his career in the music field at the age of 14, William accompanied the Hanoverian military band on their journeys to England, however, grew too sick to continue with them; his parents then sent him off back to England at the age of 18 where he lived a very isolated and difficult life. Nevertheless, William got a job as an organist in Bath during its time of glory and soon became economically situated. Little did he know that his fate was soon to be altered to chart the heavens and become one of the most influential astronomers of all time.
After settling down, William went back to Hanover at around 1772 to bring his sister, Caroline Herschel, to help him with his various tasks. In his free time Herschel would take up on reading books of the heavens such as Smith's Harmonics and Ferguson's Astronomy which led him to want to try to uncover the mysteries of the sky. He would continue to research and read more books from other astronomers such as Lalande whom all would influence him as he began to educate himself as an astronomer. Since in those days telescopes were uncommon, expensive and not that effective, William had the idea of making his own telescopes. He continued to construct bigger telescopes however the first few he made did not satisfy him. He finally took to the step to use an astronomer's old technology to grind and polish his own mirrors, which in those days was a very tedious feat but with the help of his sister and brother he made a Newtonian telescope with a focal length of 6 feet in 1774. With this, his goals were to record and chart the stars in the sky.
Of the first couple of observations William made, one was of the variable star Mira. Variable stars are stars that change its brightness during in a period of years or even seconds, such as our own Sun. He wanted to observe them in order to understand our Sun better and to see if other stars shared the same characteristics as it. William knew that our Sun rotated on an axis as well as emitted dark spots but he wanted to know if other stars also did these things. With the information that he found, he wrote it down and sent it to the Royal Society which was a group of philosophers who promoted and discussed discoveries and findings of the world. Other observations William made in 1781 was of the other planets' rotation as well as their satellites' in which he tried to see if there needed to be a change in the length of our own day. In the process of observing the planets, when he came to look at Mars, he noticed that on its poles there were white spots. Further investigating Mars, William came to find that its tilt on its axis was not so different from the Earth's tilt. He concluded that both of the planets' climate were similar and that the white spots on Mars were actually some sort of snow. While observing Saturn, William came upon a new object in the sky. At first, thinking it was a comet, he began to observe it for a couple of weeks, however, noticing the way that it moved, he came to realize that this object was really a planet! Wanting to name it after King George III at the time, the planet's name, however, became Uranus. William continued to observe the new planet and soon came to find 6 satellites around it; however, 4 of them are not considered as satellites today. In 1782, King George III invited William and his sister to come and stay with him in Windsor and he then became the King's private astronomer.
Being elected as a member of the Royal Society, William read Charles Messier's almanac "Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters" which had a list of nebulae, or clouds of gas, in the sky. This led William to want to find more. With the help of his sister, they would both dedicate nights charting the sky by positioning his telescope on one part of the sky and would stay right there throughout the night recording the stars and observations he made. The next night he would do the same but at a position higher or lower than the night before until he completely charted the entire sky above Britain. With this he would be able to observe up to 2,500 new nebulae and star clusters, all which he would record in "The General Catalogue of Nebulae". Continuing his amazing feat, William began to study nebulae even further. Primarily believing that some nebulae were actually separate galaxies, William came to discover one of the nebula to have a star in its center therefore declining the previous views that it could not contain a star. This is how he also got into observing the Milky Way. Considering the Milky Way also as a nebula, nursing many other stars, William tried to find out how it was shaped. In this process, he tried to find the distance of each star from one another and from Earth; with this he needed bigger telescopes. In 1789 William made the largest telescope of his time with a focal length of 40 feet which with he was able to discover two more satellites circling Saturn. This telescope, however, was too heavy to support so he was forced to work with smaller telescopes. With these telescopes, William discovered that some of the stars that he had been observing (145 of them) were actually pairs of stars or binary stars. He saw that they were actually revolving around each other which supported the fact that Newton's laws of gravity and Kepler's laws of planetary motion were also present in other solar systems not only our own. With this new found information, William began to observe the dense and the not so dense parts of the Milky Way and came to the conclusion that it was the shape of a disk. Although his representation of it is inaccurate due to a misconception he had of some dark regions he saw in the Milky Way, it actually opened the idea that our solar system is actually part of the Milky Way.
In 1788, William married a widow and fathered his son, John Herschel, who with him discovered even more stars and nebulae; 4,630 to be exact. Following up on his previous observations of the sunspots our Sun emitted, he wanted to see if they affected the Earth's climate in any way. To his amazement and surprise, it did; however, not in the way that he thought it would. William proposed that Earth's climate would be better if there was no sunspot activity because he thought that the more sunspots there were the less bright the would be and the less amount of heat and light energy would reach the Earth. After observing a period of time when the harvest was plentiful, however, he came to realize that this was during the time where there were sunspots being emitted from the Sun. With this, William wanted to find the temperature of the different colors and in 1800, he discovered a part more energetic than the color red and soon came to find infrared radiation. Finally becoming the first president of the Royal Society in 1821, 84 year old William passed away in 1822, but was not forgotten because the Moon and Mars and even one of Saturn's moons have craters with his name. Who knew that one simple man could find so many things through a telescope and with a lot of determination!
Of the first couple of observations William made, one was of the variable star Mira. Variable stars are stars that change its brightness during in a period of years or even seconds, such as our own Sun. He wanted to observe them in order to understand our Sun better and to see if other stars shared the same characteristics as it. William knew that our Sun rotated on an axis as well as emitted dark spots but he wanted to know if other stars also did these things. With the information that he found, he wrote it down and sent it to the Royal Society which was a group of philosophers who promoted and discussed discoveries and findings of the world. Other observations William made in 1781 was of the other planets' rotation as well as their satellites' in which he tried to see if there needed to be a change in the length of our own day. In the process of observing the planets, when he came to look at Mars, he noticed that on its poles there were white spots. Further investigating Mars, William came to find that its tilt on its axis was not so different from the Earth's tilt. He concluded that both of the planets' climate were similar and that the white spots on Mars were actually some sort of snow. While observing Saturn, William came upon a new object in the sky. At first, thinking it was a comet, he began to observe it for a couple of weeks, however, noticing the way that it moved, he came to realize that this object was really a planet! Wanting to name it after King George III at the time, the planet's name, however, became Uranus. William continued to observe the new planet and soon came to find 6 satellites around it; however, 4 of them are not considered as satellites today. In 1782, King George III invited William and his sister to come and stay with him in Windsor and he then became the King's private astronomer.
Being elected as a member of the Royal Society, William read Charles Messier's almanac "Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters" which had a list of nebulae, or clouds of gas, in the sky. This led William to want to find more. With the help of his sister, they would both dedicate nights charting the sky by positioning his telescope on one part of the sky and would stay right there throughout the night recording the stars and observations he made. The next night he would do the same but at a position higher or lower than the night before until he completely charted the entire sky above Britain. With this he would be able to observe up to 2,500 new nebulae and star clusters, all which he would record in "The General Catalogue of Nebulae". Continuing his amazing feat, William began to study nebulae even further. Primarily believing that some nebulae were actually separate galaxies, William came to discover one of the nebula to have a star in its center therefore declining the previous views that it could not contain a star. This is how he also got into observing the Milky Way. Considering the Milky Way also as a nebula, nursing many other stars, William tried to find out how it was shaped. In this process, he tried to find the distance of each star from one another and from Earth; with this he needed bigger telescopes. In 1789 William made the largest telescope of his time with a focal length of 40 feet which with he was able to discover two more satellites circling Saturn. This telescope, however, was too heavy to support so he was forced to work with smaller telescopes. With these telescopes, William discovered that some of the stars that he had been observing (145 of them) were actually pairs of stars or binary stars. He saw that they were actually revolving around each other which supported the fact that Newton's laws of gravity and Kepler's laws of planetary motion were also present in other solar systems not only our own. With this new found information, William began to observe the dense and the not so dense parts of the Milky Way and came to the conclusion that it was the shape of a disk. Although his representation of it is inaccurate due to a misconception he had of some dark regions he saw in the Milky Way, it actually opened the idea that our solar system is actually part of the Milky Way.
In 1788, William married a widow and fathered his son, John Herschel, who with him discovered even more stars and nebulae; 4,630 to be exact. Following up on his previous observations of the sunspots our Sun emitted, he wanted to see if they affected the Earth's climate in any way. To his amazement and surprise, it did; however, not in the way that he thought it would. William proposed that Earth's climate would be better if there was no sunspot activity because he thought that the more sunspots there were the less bright the would be and the less amount of heat and light energy would reach the Earth. After observing a period of time when the harvest was plentiful, however, he came to realize that this was during the time where there were sunspots being emitted from the Sun. With this, William wanted to find the temperature of the different colors and in 1800, he discovered a part more energetic than the color red and soon came to find infrared radiation. Finally becoming the first president of the Royal Society in 1821, 84 year old William passed away in 1822, but was not forgotten because the Moon and Mars and even one of Saturn's moons have craters with his name. Who knew that one simple man could find so many things through a telescope and with a lot of determination!
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