Why Did William Herschel Search The Night Sky

William Herschel was a musician who searched the heavens studying the stars first as a hobby and later an astronomer. His curiosity grew because he realized he had access to the research for himself. “For much of human history, astronomy has been the people's science…Perhaps this is because the night sky, unlike lab equipment, has always been freely accessible.” The rise of 'citizen astronomers': An era of new discoveries and collaboration. By: Joseph Dussault Staff, Christian Science Monitor, 08827729, 10/24/2016. I imagine that he had read of those before him, but have not yet found evidence.

What questions were asked? I imagine that Herschel was driven by curiosity about the number of objects existing in the heavens. He must have asked himself and others this question and when he didn’t get much response from others, he decided to research it further himself by building tools to see more detailed the night sky.

What was the
significance of the discovery? His discovery was the first planet in thousands of years. “Modern stargazers take it for granted that Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. But the people of ancient cultures weren't so enlightened. Nor were 16th- and 17th-century astronomers. For them, the solar system contained five planets besides Earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which anyone can easily see.”

A mostly unknown amateur astronomer named Frederick William Herschel (1738-1822) changed our view of the solar system in 1781. Now, more than 225 years after his discovery of Uranus, the bluish-green giant continues to astound astronomers. Its mysterious weather, almost horizontal tilt, strange seasons, and alluring rings give scientists plenty to ponder.

How did the discoverer(s) rely on the work of others?

Hershel seemed to be aware of the mass as were others before him, but with the help of his telescopic lenses he was enlightened much further.
Julie Wakefield explains, “Uranus possesses a long history of intrigue. The mysterious fleck befuddled Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Among the first to point a telescope toward the heavens, the keen Italian observer likely spotted the faint pearl about a decade into the 17th century, but Galileo assumed it was a star, much as he had dismissed Neptune. Britain's first Royal Astronomer, John Flamsteed (1646-1719), appointed in 1675, the year the Greenwich Observatory debuted, saw the unidentified object in 1690. Flamsteed recorded it as "34 Tauri" in the constellation Taurus the Bull. A later Royal Astronomer, James Bradley (1673-1762), observed Uranus three times in the mid-18th century and dismissed it as well. And French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier (1715-1799) sighted the celestial body a dozen times, with his last sighting in 1771, and never guessed it might be something other than a
star.”

“A decade later, Herschel, who was largely unknown in England's scholarly circles, enlightened society's path to other worlds. In 1781, the astronomer identified the unusual object as a planet. For the first time, earthlings knew there was more to the solar system than what could be readily observed with unaided eyes. It was an international coup for a country that had just surrendered its American colonies.”

“Initially, even Herschel had thought the heavenly body was a comet. He first viewed it from the garden of his Georgian home in Bath, England, March 13, 1781, through a 7-foot-long (2m) telescope with a 6-inch-diameter (15 centimeters) reflecting mirror that he built himself. Within 4 days, he had verified its motion was not that of a comet.”