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Caroline Herschel

 
Scientist: Caroline Lucretia Herschel
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German–British astronomer (1750–1848)

See Herschel, Sir (Frederick) William.
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Biography: Caroline Herschel
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Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) is noted for her scientific annals in astronomy more than for her mathematical knowledge. Yet, while her accomplishments were heralded in astronomy, Herschel deserves recognition in both fields. She never received formal mathematical training, which only serves to accent the dimension of her accomplishments and determination.

Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born on March 16, 1750 in Hanover, Germany. She was a homely child who received little love and encouragement from her mother. Her father, Isaac Herschel, was a musician in the Hanoverian Guard. He encouraged her to obtain an education. She was, as he kept telling her, so homely and without money, no one would marry her until she was older and had more character. Herschel was a literate young woman, but did not receive a formal education. At the age of 17, her father died and she fell under her mother's domination.

Herschel led a harsh life until her brother William, who was eleven years her senior, empathized with her plight. He invited her to live with him in Bath, England, where he was immersed in musical training and astronomy. Their mother refused to let her go until William promised to provide funds for her mother to retain a maid.

In August 1772, Herschel left for England. Over the next five years, her horizons expanded. A neighbor taught her cooking, marketing, and English. Unlike their parents, William encouraged his sister to be independent. She enrolled in voice lessons and learned to play the harpsichord, soon becoming an integral part of William's musical performances at small gatherings.

In her spare time, she and William discussed astronomy. Her interest in the constellations grew. But, as William's sister, she needed to learn and incorporate English society into her schedule. Such activities seemed like nonsense to her staunch German upbringing, but she did learn with William's guidance, and soon began making appearances at the opera, theater, and concerts.

Herschel longed to be self-supporting. At the age of 27, she was in demand as a soloist for oratorios. But William increasingly needed her efficient, meticulous talents in copying his astronomy catalogs, tables, and papers. She eventually drifted from her desires and devoted herself to his astronomy.

Made Celestial Discoveries

Herschel assisted her brother in grinding and polishing his telescopes. He built a new six-foot telescope and began scanning the night skies. In 1781, William (with his sister's devoted help) discovered Uranus. This discovery assured him recognition in British scientific circles. Originally, Uranus had been named "Georgium Sidus," after King George III. William was appointed to the position of court astronomer and was knighted. While such an appointment guaranteed financial security for William, Caroline Herschel was appointed his assistant and given an annual stipend of 50 pounds. Herschel's appointment made her the first female in England honored with a government position.

Herschel focused on providing her brother with the support he needed. She systematically collected data and trained herself in geometry, learned formulas and logarithmic tables, and gained an understanding of the relationship of sidereal time (time measured by means of the stars) to solar time. Her record keeping was meticulous and systematic. The numerical calculations and reductions, which saved her brother precious time, were all done without error, and the volume of her work was enormous.

When Herschel was not engaged in other tasks, she too searched the night skies using a small Newtonian reflector. To her credit, in early 1783, Herschel discovered the Andromeda and Cetus nebulae. By year's end, she had discovered 14 additional nebulae. As a reward, William presented her with a new Newtonian sweeper of 27 inches, with a focal length of 30. Herschel was also the first woman to discover a comet. Between 1789 and 1797 she had discovered another seven comets.

Herschel calculated and catalogued nearly 2,500 nebulae. She also undertook the task of reorganizing John Flamsteed's British Catalogue, which listed nearly 3,000 stars. Herschel's listings were divided into one-degree zones in order for William to use a more systematic method of searching the skies.

Herschel's brother married in 1788, causing her concern about having to share his home and affections. These concerns proved to be without merit, as her new sister-in-law accepted her warmly and graciously. The two women became good friends.

On August 25, 1822, William died, leaving Herschel without support. She returned to Hanover, still supported by the British royal family. Herschel continued with her own work in the fields of mathematics and astronomy. In 1825, she had donated the works of John Flamsteed to the Royal Academy of Göttingen.

Herschel never married. She spent the last years of her life in Hanover, organizing and cataloguing the works of William's son, Sir John Herschel, who carried on his father's extensive work.

In 1828, at the age of 75, the Royal Astronomical Society awarded Herschel a gold medal for her monumental works in science. Ten years later, she was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society. She received a similar honor from the Royal Irish Academy. On her 96th birthday, Herschel was awarded the gold medal of science by the King of Prussia.

On January 9, 1848, Herschel died at the age of 97. Her meticulous work aiding her famous brother was her legacy. While not credited with any original mathematical works, she applied her painstaking, meticulous skill to the advancement of human knowledge.

Further Reading

Astronomy from A to Z: A Dictionary of Celestial Objects and Ideas, edited by Charles A. Schweighauser, Sangamon State University, 1991.

Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie, Charles Scribners' Sons, 1981.

Osen, Lynn M. Women in Mathematics. The MIT Press, 1974.

Nysewander, Melissa. "Caroline Herschel." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. June 1997. http://www/scottlan.edu/lriddle/women/chronol.htm(July 21, 1997).

Wikipedia: Caroline Herschel
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"C. Herschel" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see C. Herschel (crater).
Caroline Herschel

Born 16 March 1750(1750-03-16)
Hanover, Germany
Died 9 January 1848 (aged 97)
Hannover, Germany
Nationality German
Fields Astronomy
Known for Discovery of comets
Notable awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1828)
Prussian Gold Medal for Science (1846)

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German astronomer, the sister of astronomer Sir Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contribution to astronomy was the discovery of several comets and in particular the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name. She was the forth of five children.

Contents

Early life

Caroline was born in Hanover to Isaak Herschel and Anna Ilse Moritzen of Hannover. At the time, the crowns of England and Hannover were united under George II., meaning that all citizens of Hannover were also British citizens. Isaac led a musical family, and Wilhelm twelve years Caroline's senior, became an army oboist in his teens. After seeing combat and deciding on a new career Wilhelm decided to go to England, moving there in 1766 at the age of nineteen. Upon Isaak's death in 1767 Caroline was left working in the family kitchen, and when an invitation to join Wilhelm arrived she moved to join him in 1772.

By this point Wilhelm had established himself as an organist and music teacher at 19 New King Street, Bath, Somerset (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy). She took several singing lessons a day from Wilhelm, who had become the choirmaster of the Octagon Chapel. Wilhelm was busy with his musical career and became fairly busy organizing public concerts. Caroline was the principal singer at his oratorio concerts, and acquired such a reputation as a vocalist that she was offered an engagement for the Birmingham festival which she declined. But it appears that Caroline did not blend in with the local society and made few friends.[1]

Astronomical work

A telescope that Wilhelm Herschel made for Caroline 1795

William's 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 Wilhelm, stating that she was "much hindered in my practice by my help being continually wanted in the execution of the various astronomical contrivances."[1] Wilhelm became known for his work on high performance telescopes, and Caroline found herself supporting his efforts.

In 1782, Wilhelm accepted the office of King's 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 Wilhelm 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 off "...they could not lift me without leaving nearly 2 ounces [60 g] of my flesh behind."[1]

In 1788 Wilhelm married a rich widow. Although his new wife made every effort to stay on friendly terms with Caroline it seems her life was considerably upset.[1] Through this period she continued her observations on her own, and made many of her discoveries. She later reconciled with the couple, and took great delight in her new nephew, John Herschel.[1]

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 1783 - 87, including most notably an independent discovery of M110 (NGC 205), the second companion of the Andromeda Galaxy. During 1786 - 97 she also discovered eight comets, her first comet being discovered on 1 August 1786. She had unquestioned priority on five of the comets[2] and had rediscovered Comet Encke in 1795.[3] In 1787, she was granted an annual salary of £50 by George III for her work as Wilhelm's assistant.[4]

In 1797 William's observations had shown that there were a great many discrepancies in the star catalogue published by John Flamsteed, which was difficult 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 in order to properly explore these differences 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.[4]

Caroline returned to Hanover in 1822 following her brother's death, but did not abandon her astronomical studies, continuing to verify and confirm Wilhelm's findings and producing a catalogue of nebulae to assist her nephew John 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.

In 1835, along with Mary Somerville, she was elected to honorary membership of the Royal Astronomical Society; they were the first honorary women members. In 1838 she was also elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1846 at the age of 96, she was awarded the Gold Medal for Science by the King of Prussia.[5]

Caroline Herschel died at Hanover on 9 January 1848. She is buried at 35 Marienstrasse in Hanover at the cemetery of the Gartengemeinde.

Honours

  • In 1889 the asteroid 281 Lucretia (discovered 1888) was named after Caroline's second given name.
  • In 1935 the crater C. Herschel on the Moon was named in her honour.
  • The Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope (FIRST), due to be launched in May 2009, was renamed the Herschel Space Observatory in honour of William and Caroline Herschel.
  • Adrienne Rich's 1968 poem Planetarium celebrated Caroline Herschel's life and scientific achievements.

References and notes

Caroline Herschel at age 92
  1. ^ a b c d e The Inimitable Caroline, J. Donald Fernie, American Scientist, November-December 2007, pp. 486-488
  2. ^ Obituary of Miss Caroline Lucretia Herschel. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 8, p. 65 (1847).
  3. ^ Obituary of John Francis Encke. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 26, p.131 (1865).
  4. ^ a b Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. MIT Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN 026265038X. 
  5. ^ Herschel, John (1879). Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel. John Murray. 

Further reading

  • Brock, Claire (2007). The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Herschel's Astronomical Ambition. Icon Books Ltd.. ISBN 1840467207. 
  • Hoskin, Michael (2008). "Carolyn Lucretia Herschel". New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 3. Scribners. pp. 286 – 287. 
  • Herschel, Mrs. J. F. (1876). Letters and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel. New York: Harpers. 

External links

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.


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