Caroline Herschel

C. Herschel redirects here. For the lunar crater, see C.

Herschel (crater).

Somerset (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy). He

was also the choirmaster of the Octagon Chapel. William
was busy with his musical career and became fairly busy
organising public concerts. Caroline took several singing
lessons a day from William. She became the principal
singer at his oratorio concerts, and acquired such a reputation as a vocalist that she was oered an engagement
for the Birmingham festival. She declined to sing for any
conductor but William.[2] But it appears that Caroline did
not blend in with the local society and made few friends.[3]

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (16 March 1750 9 January 1848) was a German British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she
worked throughout both of their careers. Her most signicant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries
of several comets and in particular the periodic comet
35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name.[1]
She was the rst woman to be paid for her contribution
to science, to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society (1828), and to be named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society (1835,
with Mary Somerville). She was also named an honorary
member of the Royal Irish Academy (1838). The King
of Prussia presented her with a Gold Medal for Science,
on the occasion of her 96th birthday (1846).[2]

2 Personal life
When William became increasingly interested in astronomy, transforming himself from a musician to an astronomer, Caroline again supported his eorts. She said
somewhat bitterly, in her Memoir, I did nothing for my
brother but what a well-trained puppy dog would have
done, that is to say, I did what he commanded me. It is
clear, however, from the independent work she did during
Williams lifetime, from her work after Williams death,
and from the interest in astronomy displayed in her letters
throughout her life, that Caroline became as interested
in astronomy as William.[2] She became a signicant astronomer in her own right as a result of her collaboration
with him.[1]

Early life

Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born at Hanover on 16

March 1750. She was the eighth child and fourth daughter of Isaac Herschel and his wife, Anna Ilse Moritzen.
Isaac became a bandmaster in the Guards, was away
with his regiment for substantial periods, and suered ill- Throughout her writings, she repeatedly makes it clear
health after the battle of Dettingen in 1743.[2]
that she desires to earn an independent wage and be able
At the age of ten, Caroline was struck with typhus, which to support herself. When the state began paying her
stunted her growth, so that she never grew past four-foot for her assistance to her brother, she became the rst
three.[1] Her family assumed that she would never marry womanat a time when even men rarely received wages
and her mother felt it was best for her to train to be a house for scientic enterprisesto receive a salary for services
servant. Her father wished her to receive an education, to science.[4]
but her mother opposed this. Her father sometimes took When William married a rich widow, Mary Pitt (ne
advantage of her mothers absence to teach her directly or Baldwin), in 1788, the union caused tension in the
include her in her brothers lessons. Caroline was allowed brother-sister relationship. Caroline has been referred to
to learn millinery and dress-making and worked hard at as a bitter, jealous woman who worshiped her brother and
various types of fancy-work, with a view to someday sup- resented those who invaded their domestic lives.[5] In his
porting herself.[2]
book The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes is more symFollowing her fathers death, her brother William proposed that she join him in Bath, England, to make the
trial if by his instruction I might not become a useful
singer for his winter concerts and oratorios.[2] Caroline
eventually left Hanover on 16 August 1772, and accompanied her brother William back to England. There she
took on the responsibilities of running his household, and
learning to sing. William had established himself as an
organist and music teacher at 19 New King Street, Bath,

pathetic to Carolines position, noting that the change was

in many respects negative for Caroline. With the arrival
of Williams wife, Caroline lost her managerial and social
responsibilities in the household and accompanying status. According to her memoir, she also moved from the
house to external lodgings, returning daily to work with
her brother. She no longer held the keys to the observatory and workroom, where she had done much of her own
work.[2] Because she destroyed her journals from 1788
1

ASTRONOMICAL WORK

to 1798, her feelings about the period are not entirely

known. Barthlemy Faujas de Saint-Fond indicated she
and her brother continued working well during this period. When her brother and his family were away from
home, she often returned there to take care of it for them.
In later life, she and Lady Herschel exchanged aectionate letters and she became deeply attached to her nephew,
astronomer John Herschel.[2]
Williams marriage likely led to Carolines becoming
more independent of her brother and more a gure in her
own right.[6] Caroline made many discoveries independently of William, and continued to work solo on many
of the astronomical projects which contributed to her rise
to fame.
After her brother died, she was grief-stricken and moved
back to Hanover, Germany. Caroline Herschel died at
Hanover on 9 January 1848. She is buried at 35 Marienstrasse in Hanover at the cemetery of the Gartengemeinde.

Astronomical work

Williams interest in astronomy started as a hobby to pass

time at night. At breakfast the next day he would give an
impromptu lecture on what he had learned the night before. Caroline became as interested as William, stating
that she was much hindered in my practice by my help
being continually wanted in the execution of the various
astronomical contrivances.[3] William became known
for his work on high performance telescopes, and Caroline found herself supporting his eorts. Caroline spent
many hours polishing mirrors and mounting telescopes
in order to maximize the amount of light captured.[7] She
learned to copy astronomical catalogues and other publications that William had borrowed. She also learned to
record, reduce, and organise her brothers astronomical
observations. She recognised that this work demanded
speed, precision and accuracy.[8]
In 1782, William accepted the oce of Kings Astronomer to George III and moved to Datchet and subsequently to Observatory House near Slough (then in
Buckinghamshire, now in Berkshire). The new job
proved to be a mixed blessing; although it left him with
ample free time to continue his astronomical observations, it also meant a reduction in income and being called
upon by the king for entertainment at any time. During
this time William perfected his telescope making, building a series of ever larger devices that ultimately ended
with his famous 40-foot (12 m) focal length instrument.
Caroline was his constant assistant in his observations,
also performing the laborious calculations with which
they were connected. During one such observation run on
the large telescope in 1783, Caroline became caught on
an iron hook and when she was helped o "...they could
not lift me without leaving nearly 2 ounces (60 g) of my

A telescope that William Herschel made for Caroline 1795

esh behind.[3]
At Williams suggestion, Caroline began to make observations on her own in 1782. During her leisure hours she
occupied herself with observing the sky with a 27-inch
(690 mm) focal length Newtonian telescope and by this
means detected a number of astronomical objects during
the years 178387, including most notably an independent discovery of M110 (NGC 205), the second companion of the Andromeda Galaxy. During 178697 she
also discovered eight comets, her rst comet being discovered on 1 August 1786. She had unquestioned priority
as discoverer of ve of the comets[4][9] and rediscovered
Comet Encke in 1795.[10] In 1787, she was granted an annual salary of 50 (equivalent to 5,700 in 2015[11] ) by
George III for her work as Williams assistant.[12]
In 1797 Williams observations had shown that there were
a great many discrepancies in the star catalogue published
by John Flamsteed, which was dicult to use due to
its having been published as two volumes, the catalogue
proper and a volume of original observations. William
realised that he needed a proper cross-index to properly

3
in the annals of astronomical labour. She completed
this work after her brothers death and her removal to
Hanover.[2][9]
The Royal Astronomical Society elected her an Honorary
Member in 1835, along with Mary Somerville; they were
the rst women members. In 1838 she was notied by
Sir William Hamilton, Astronomer Royal, Dublin that
she had also been elected as an honorary member of the
Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.[2]
In 1846, at the age of 96, she was awarded a Gold
Medal for Science by the King of Prussia, conveyed
to her by Alexander von Humboldt, in recognition of
the valuable services rendered to Astronomy by you, as
the fellow-worker of your immortal brother, Sir William
Herschel, by discoveries, observations, and laborious
calculations.[2]
The asteroid 281 Lucretia (discovered 1888) was named
after Carolines second given name, and the crater C.
Herschel on the Moon is named after her.
Adrienne Rich's 1968 poem Planetarium celebrated Caroline Herschels life and scientic achievements.

5 See also
William and Caroline Herschel polishing a telescope lens, 1896
Lithograph.

explore these dierences but was reluctant to devote time

to it at the expense of his more interesting astronomical
activities. He therefore recommended to Caroline that
she undertake the task. The resulting Catalogue of Stars
was published by the Royal Society in 1798 and contained
an index of every observation of every star made by Flamsteed, a list of errata, and a list of more than 560 stars that
had not been included.[12]
Caroline returned to Hanover in 1822 following her
brothers death, continuing her astronomical studies to
verify and conrm Williams ndings and producing a
catalogue of nebulae to assist her nephew John Herschel
in his work. In 1828 the Royal Astronomical Society
presented her with their Gold Medal for this work no
woman would be awarded it again until Vera Rubin in
1996.

Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars

6 References
[1] Nysewander, Melissa. Caroline Herschel. Biographies of
Women Mathematicians, Atlanta: Agnes Scott College,
1998.
[2] Herschel, Caroline Lucretia (1876). Herschel, Mrs. John,
ed. Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel.
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
[3] The Inimitable Caroline, J. Donald Fernie, American Scientist, NovemberDecember 2007, pp. 486488
[4] Brock, Claire. Public Experiments. History Workshop
Journal, 2004: 306312.
[5] Fernie, Donald. The Inimitable Caroline. American Scientist 2007: 486488.
[6] The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes pages 182196

Honours

[7] Ashworth, Wilhelm. Untitled Review. The British Society for the History of Science Vol. 37 No. 3, 2004:
350351.

Herschel was awarded a gold medal from the

Astronomical Society of London, and another from [8] Warner, Deborah. Review, Untitled. Chicago Journal,
the King of Prussia.[8] The gold medal from the As2004: 505.
tronomical Society was awarded to her in 1828 for
her recent reduction, to January, 1800, of the [2,500] [9] Obituary of Miss Caroline Lucretia Herschel. Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 8: 6466. 1847.
Nebul discovered by her illustrious brother, which may
be considered as the completion of a series of exertions [10] Obituary of John Francis Encke. Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society 26: 129134. 1865.
probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance

EXTERNAL LINKS

Terror of Science (2009) ISBN 978-1-4000-3187-0,

extensive coverage of the Herschels
Hoskin, Michael (2008). Carolyn Lucretia Herschel. New Dictionary of Scientic Biography 3.
Scribners. pp. 286287.
Herschel, Caroline Lucretia (1876). Herschel, Mrs.
John, ed. Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline
Herschel. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.

9 External links
Works written by or about Caroline Herschel at
Wikisource
Herschel, Mrs. John (1876). Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel (2 ed.). New York:
Harpers.
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F.,
Caroline Herschel, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
Caroline Lucretia Herschel biography at fembio.org
Caroline Herschel Biography, SEDS
Caroline Herschels Deepsky Objects, SEDS
About the Herschel Museum of Astronomy
Caroline Herschel at age 92

[11] UK CPI ination numbers based on data available from

Gregory Clark (2015), "The Annual RPI and Average
Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
[12] Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. MIT Press. pp.
9798. ISBN 0-262-65038-X.

Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.

Further reading
Brock, Claire (2007). The Comet Sweeper: Caroline
Herschels Astronomical Ambition. Icon Books Ltd.
ISBN 1-84046-720-7.
Holmes, Richard. The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and

Obituary of Miss Caroline Lucretia Herschel.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 8, p. 64 (1847).
Bibliography from the Astronomical Society of the
Pacic

10
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