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1738, Nov 151774-18201822, Aug 25
a German-born British astronomer, composer, and brother of Caroline Herschel. His interest in astronomy grew stronger after he made the acquaintance of the English Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne. He composed numerous musical works, including 24 symphonies and many concertos, as well as some church music.
 Timeline (9)
03/04/1774-First sighting of Orion nebula by William Herschel 
05/02/1780-William Herschel discovers first binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris
03/13/1781-Sir William Herschel discovers Uranus
02/01/1783-William Herschel announces star Lambda Herculis as apex 
05/04/1783-William Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus
01/11/1787-Titania and Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel
08/28/1789-Sir William Herschel discovers Enceladus, sixth-largest moon of Saturn
09/17/1789-William Herschel discovers Mimas, satellite of Saturn
07/04/1819-William Herschel makes last telescopic observation of 1819 comet 
 Mentions (3)
Caroline Herschel
...British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers....
Sir James South
...it became the Royal Astronomical Society. South and William Herschel jointly produced a catalogue of 380 double stars...
Samuel Stearns
...(1792) to be printed in America. His sister married William Herschel, the astronomer.
 Contemporaries
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William Herschel1738, Nov 151774
 
18201822, Aug 25

Stephen Hopkins1707, Mar 71730
 
17791785, Jul 13
 a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode...
Thomas Wright [2]1711, Sep 221730
 
17791786, Feb 25
 an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the...
Cesar-Francois Cassini de Thury1714, Jun 171735
 
17841784, Sep 4
 a French astronomer and cartographer. His chief works are: La méridienne de l’Observatoire ...
Charles Messier1730, Jun 261744
 
17851817, Apr 12
 a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of nebulae a...
Rudjer Boscovich1711, May 181740
 
17861787, Feb 13
 a Ragusan physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologian, Jesuit p...
John Goodricke1764, Sep 171778
 
 
17861786, Apr 20
 an English amateur astronomer. He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol (...
Jean Sylvain Bailly1736, Sep 151759
 
17871793, Nov 12
 a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the Fren...
Maximilian Hell1720, May 151756
 
17891792, Apr 14
  a Hungarian astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary. Hell became th...
Benjamin Banneker1731, Nov 91753
 
17971806, Oct 9
 a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist and farmer. His knowledge of astrono...
Asada Goryu 1734, Mar 101767
 
17991799, Jun 25
 a Japanese astronomer who helped to introduce modern astronomical instruments and methods into Ja...
Jean-Dominique Cassini1748 Jun 301768
 
18101845, Oct 18
 a French astronomer, he succeeded his father as director of the observatory. He published in 177...
Eise Eisinga1744, Feb 211761
 
18111828, Aug 27
 a Frisian amateur astronomer who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Fri...
Iwahashi Zenbei17561790
 
 
18111811
 a Japanese scientist and optician. Zenbei researched some imported optical instruments, then in 1...
Honore Flaugergues1755, May 161809
 
 
18131830, Nov 20/1835, Nov 26
 a French astronomer. He discovered the "Great Comet of 1811" (C/1811 F1), and independently co-di...
Andrew Ellicott [2]1754, Jan 241772
 
18171820, Aug 28
 a U.S. surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the bou...
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre1749, Sep 191788
 
18221822, Aug 19
 a French mathematician and astronomer. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author ...
Johann Elert Bode1747, Jan 191766
 
18251826, Nov 23
 a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularization of the Titius–Bode law. Bode...
Joseph von Fraunhofer1787, Mar 61801
 
18261826, Jun 7
 a German optician, known for discovering the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in t...
Pierre-Simon Laplace1749, Mar 231771
 
18271827, Mar 5
 an influential French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, statist...
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers1758, Oct 111779
 
18271840, Mar 2
 a German physician and astronomer. Olbers discovered and named the asteroid Pallas. Five years l...
Franz Xaver von Zach1754, Jun 41780
 
18271832, Sep 2
 a Hungarian astronomer born in Pest, Hungary. Zach published Tables of the Sun (Gotha, 179...
Fearon Fallows1788, Jul 41816
 
18301831, Jul 25
 an English astronomer to King George IV. Between 1821 and 1829 he worked to site, plan and develo...
Karl Ludwig Harding1765, Sep 291796
 
18341834, Aug 31
 a German astronomer notable for having discovered the asteroid 3 Juno. In addition to Juno, he di...
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel1784, Jul 221804
 
18421846, Mar 17
 a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who dete...
Alexis Bouvard1767, Jun 271793
 
18431843, Jun 7
 a French astronomer. He is particularly noted for his careful observations of the irregularities ...
Francis Baily1774, Apr 281799
 
18431844, Aug 30
 an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of 'Baily's beads' during an eclips...
Caroline Herschel1750 Mar 161772
 
18461848, Jan 9
 a German British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worke...
Karl Ludwig Hencke1793, Apr 81807
 
18471866, Sep 21
 a German amateur astronomer. He discovered two asteroids from his private observatory at #9, Kiet...
James Dunlop1793, Oct 311810
 
18471848, Sep 22
 a Scottish astronomer, noted for his work in Australia. He served as astronomer's assistant at a ...
Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela1782, Mar 191802
 
18491856, Feb 18
 a German-Austrian military officer and amateur astronomer. In the field of astronomy, he speciali...
William Cranch Bond1789, Sep 91806
 
18501859, Jan 29
 an American astronomer, and the first director of Harvard College Observatory. When he built his ...
Francois Arago1786, Feb 261804
 
18521853, Oct 2
 a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the carbonari and politici...
Carl Friedrich Gauss1777, Apr 301798
 
18541855, Feb 23
 a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, alg...
August Ferdinand Mobius1790, Nov 171816
 
18581868, Sep 26
 a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the Möb...
Giuseppe Asclepi17061760
 
1861776
 an Italian astronomer and physician. He was a Jesuit and director of the observatory at the Colle...
Christopher Hansteen1784, Sep 261806
 
18611873, Apr 11
 a Norwegian geophysicist, astronomer and physicist, best known for his mapping of Earth's magneti...
Johann Franz Encke1791, Sep 231816
 
18631865, Aug 26
 a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets ...
John Herschel1792, Mar 71816
 
18671871, May 11
 an English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer, and...
David Rittenhouse1732, Apr 81750
 
1871796, Jun 26
 a renowned American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrum...
Sir Edward Sabine1788, Oct 141818
 
18711883, Jun 26
 an Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, explorer, soldier and the 30th President of the...
Mary Fairfax Somerville1780, Dec 261811
 
18721872, Nov 29
 a Scottish science writer and polymath, at a time when women's participation in science was disco...
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