Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (November 15, 1738 - August 25, 1822), British astronomer, classical composer, and musician. The founder of stellar astronomy, known as the father of stellar astronomy. The first President of the Royal Astronomical Society. Member of the French Academy of Sciences. Used a large reflecting telescope designed by himself to discover Uranus and its two satellites, the two satellites of Saturn, the space motion of the sun, and the infrared radiation in sunlight; compiled the first catalog of double stars and clustered stars, and published a catalog of star clusters and nebulae; The structure of the Milky Way was also studied.
William Herschel was born in Hanover on November 15, 1738. His father was an oboist in the military band of the Hanover Guards Infantry Company. William was the third of six children. When he was 15 years old, he inherited his father's career and became a violinist and oboe player in the army. His ambition was to be a composer. However, he spent a lot of his spare time studying language, mathematics, and optics, and developed a strong desire to use a telescope to view celestial bodies with his own eyes. In 1756, the "Seven Years' War" came. William was disgusted with war, so he managed to leave the army in 1757 and fled to England, first in Leeds and later in the resort of Bath. Musical talent helped him establish himself in Bath. In 1766, he was hired as the organist of Bath Cathedral and has become a famous local organist and music teacher, tutoring up to 35 students every week. In 1772, his sister Caroline, who was 12 years younger than him, joined him and served as his housekeeper. In 1772, his sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), who was 12 years younger than him, joined him and served as his housekeeper. At the same time, he wanted William to learn English and mathematics. Not only did she take good care of the housework, but she also kept a very detailed diary, leaving a history of William's work for fifty years. While William was preoccupied with polishing telescope lenses, Caroline fed her brother.
Honorary Achievements
William had already become interested in astronomy, so he began to build his own telescope and engage in observation; Caroline became his assistant and began her own astronomical research. In 1773, William used the purchased lens to build his first astronomical telescope, which could magnify 40 times. By 1776, he had built reflecting telescopes with focal lengths of 3 meters and 6 meters and began to conduct sky surveys. On March 13, 1781, William Herschel discovered a new planet, Uranus, which caused a sensation. His work attracted the attention of King George III of England, who was passionate about astronomy. George III pardoned William's fault of deserting the army without authorization and hired William as his personal astronomer from 1782. The Herschel brothers and sisters first moved to Datchet near Windsor, and then (1786) moved to Slough. From then on, William worked in Slough throughout his life. In the next 30 years, he built a series of large telescopes and conducted many groundbreaking observations. He was knighted in 1816.
Herschel expanded the catalog of Charles Messier nebulae and star clusters to include 100 nebulae, eventually reaching more than 2,000 objects; he discovered two satellites of Uranus (Uranus and Uranus). 4) and two of Saturn's moons (Mimas and Enceladus); he interpreted the appearance of the Milky Way as what we would see from within a disk-shaped Milky Way. The extent of Caroline's involvement in these efforts is less clear, but she is now thought to have been William's collaborator rather than just his assistant. She discovered many nebulae herself. After William's death in Slough on August 25, 1822, she returned to Hanover to compile a catalog of 2,500 nebulae and star clusters, for which she was awarded a medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828 at the age of 78. Gold Medal. She died on January 9, 1848, just over two years shy of her 100th birthday.
In 1783, through the analysis of some stellar motion data, it was deduced that the sun has a space motion in the direction of Hercules, which is called the fundamental motion of the sun. Through many years of sky survey and observation, we sampled and counted stars in some proposed selections, and in 1785 we obtained a structural diagram of the Milky Way that is flat, uneven in outline, and centered on the sun, thereby preliminarily establishing the concept of the Milky Way. In 1787, two Uranus satellites were discovered - Enceladus and Enceladus. In 1789, two Saturn satellites - Mimas and Enceladus were discovered. Through long-term observations of double stars, lists containing 848 pairs of newly discovered double stars were published in 1782, 1785 and 1821.
From 1802 to 1804, he pointed out that most double stars are not optical double stars that accidentally come together in direction, but physical double stars. He also discovered that the two stars of the double star orbit each other. Through systematic observations of star clusters and nebulae, a catalog of star clusters and nebulae was published three times in 1786, 1789 and 1802, which included 2,500 star clusters and nebulae. In 1800, radiation in the infrared band of the solar spectrum was discovered. This was the first detection of infrared radiation from a celestial body.
He was knighted in 1816 and elected as the first president of the newly established Royal Astronomical Society in 1821.
His sister C.L. Herschel was also an astronomer. She never married and served as his assistant for a long time. She also independently discovered 14 nebulae and 8 comets.
His son J.F.W. Herschel was also an astronomer. (John Herschel is buried next to Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey)
The three members of the family are often collectively referred to as the Herschel family. They were a British family that made outstanding contributions to astronomy in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Main achievements
(1) Manufactured many large telescopes. At least 76 telescopes were manufactured and sold. The maximum diameter of the self-used reflecting telescope was 1.2 meters, the largest in the world at that time;
(2) Discovered Uranus. In 1781, William Herschel accidentally discovered Uranus while surveying the sky with a homemade telescope, and later discovered two satellites of Uranus and Saturn. For this, he won the Copley Medal of the Royal Society and was elected as a member; < /p>
(3) Conducted research on the structure of the Milky Way, and used statistical methods to confirm for the first time the hypothesis that the Milky Way is a flat disk;
(4) Engaged in the study of star clusters, nebulae and double stars, The results of 20 years of observation were compiled into three catalogs of nebulae and star clusters, recording a total of 2,500 nebulae and star clusters, of which only more than 100 were known to previous generations. 848 double stars, triple stars and cluster stars were also discovered. ;
(5) Discovered the space motion of the sun. He discovered and determined that the sun's direction point is located near λ Hercules, which is very close to the modern accepted value. Because of William Herschel's outstanding achievements in astronomy, especially in the field of stellar observation, later generations hailed him as the "Father of Stellar Astronomy."