A celebration of the astronomy of William Herschel

This all-day conference, at Queen Square or online, is the centrepiece of the Herschel Society’s celebration of William Herschel’s achievements on the 200th anniversary of his death in 1822.

William is famous as the discoverer of the planet Uranus in 1781, but his importance to astronomy rests much more on his pioneering deep sky work over the subsequent decades.

We will explore William’s telescope making, observing methods, ground- breaking deductions, unique collaboration with Caroline in cataloguing the deep sky, his speculative views on life on other worlds and William’s and Caroline’s own words. We will show what this has led to today in the latest astronomical survey work by the Gaia space observatory. We will also illustrate his achievements in other ways.

Please click here to see the programme for the day. Printed copies of the programme will be available on the day for Queen Square attendees.