Sir William Herschel

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was a distinguished German-British astronomer and composer, born at Hanover. He was son of a musician, and bred to the profession. He came to England at the end of the Seven Years' War, and obtained sundry appointments as an organist. He gave his leisure time to the study of astronomy and survey of the heavens. He discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, which he called Georgium sidus in honour of George III, discovered also the two innermost belts of Saturn, as well as drew up a catalogue of 5000 heavenly bodies or clusters of them. By 1805, he suggested on the basis of his telescopic studies that the Universe was not confined to our solar system, but was only a part of a much bigger star system called the Galaxy.