William and Caroline Herschel

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Herschel (1738 - 1822) and his sister Caroline Herschel (1750 - 1848) who were born in Hanover and made their reputation in Britain. William was one of the most eminent astronomers in British history. Although he started life as a musician, as a young man he became interested in studying the night sky. With an extraordinary talent, he constructed telescopes that were able to see further and more clearly than any others at the time. He is most celebrated today for discovering the planet Uranus and detecting what came to be known as infrared radiation. Caroline also became a distinguished astronomer, discovering several comets and collaborating with her brother.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Monica Grady 9 episodes
  Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University
• Carolin Crawford 19 episodes
  Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge and an Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
• Jim Bennett 11 episodes
  Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum in London

Reading list

• Comets, Cosmology and the Big Bang: A History of Astronomy from Edmond Halley to Edwin Hubble
  Allan Chapman (Lion Books, 2018) Google Books →
• The Telescope: A Short History
  Richard Dunn (Conway, 2011) Google Books →
• Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel
  Michael Hoskin (Princeton University Press, 2011) Google Books →
• The Construction of the Heavens: William Herschel's Cosmology
  Michael Hoskin (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
• The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos
  Michael Lemonick (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0011c4p

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011c4p

Auto-category: 520 (Astronomy and allied sciences)