William Herschel's Extraordinary Night Of Discovery

I chose to research the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781. When William first started getting into astronomy he, “…systematically searched for nebulae…” (Mark Bratton, "William Herschel's Extraordinary Night Of Discovery." William enjoyed looking at the stars and enjoyed creating telescopes to do so. But, Alan MacRobert in his article titled, “Ice-Giant Spotting” explained that, “William Herschel in England swept up Uranus by accident in 1781 while using a homemade reflector in his back garden.” William was never specifically looking for planets It was merely discovered on a chance. In fact, Steve Ruskin describes this discovery quite well in his article titled, "William Herschel and the Discovery of the Planet Uranus.", it reads:
“While observing the area in the constellation of Gemini, he noticed a large object that he thought was a nebula or a comet. Four nights later he noticed that this object had moved, and so he concluded it was in fact a comet.” William began questioning what this strange object in the sky was and through some studying he decided that it was a comet. Of course, this conclusion was incorrect. Thanks to the help of Nevil Maskelyne and Ander Johan Lexell the ‘comet’ was confirmed to be a planet. Maskelyne was on the right track in believing it was a planet but it wasn’t until Lexell confirmed it that it was definite. I find it fascinating that this all started with one man who wasn’t even searching for planets. It reminds me that anything is possible. The significance of this discovery is the fact that it was the first planet documented in history! It made William Herschel very famous. Though for me this discovery is very significant because I have always loved the space, and I am grateful that Uranus was discovered before I was born because now we know so much more thanks to technology. Without the discovery of Uranus, who knows how long it would have taken for the human race to start documenting planets!