Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, KH, FRS, English: Sir Frederick William Herschel, (15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German astronomer, technical expert and composer who became famous for discovering Uranus. He also discovered infrared radiation and made many other discoveries in astronomy.
He was born in Hannover, Electorate of Hanover, now Lower Saxony, Germany, as one of ten children (of whom four died very young). His father Isaak Herschel...
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Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, KH, FRS, English: Sir Frederick William Herschel, (15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German astronomer, technical expert and composer who became famous for discovering Uranus. He also discovered infrared radiation and made many other discoveries in astronomy.
He was born in Hannover, Electorate of Hanover, now Lower Saxony, Germany, as one of ten children (of whom four died very young). His father Isaak Herschel (1708–1768) was an oboist of the Hannover Military Band. His mother a born Anna Ilse Moritzen. In 1755 the Hannoverian Guards regiment, in whose band Wilhelm and his brother Jakob were engaged as oboists, was ordered to England. At the time, the crowns of England and Hannover were united under George II. This brief visit made an impression, and the next year the brothers resigned from the Guards band and moved to London. Wilhelm, nineteen years old at this time, learned English quickly. In England he was soon called Frederick William Herschel...
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