William Lassell

William Lassell ( born June 18, 1799 in Bolton, Lancashire, † October 5, 1880 in Maidenhead, Berkshire ) was a British astronomer.

Thanks to a successful brewing business he was able to pursue his interest in astronomy. He built an observatory near Liverpool with a 60 - cm reflecting telescope, which was best known for his novel equatorial mount for easy tracking of the night sky. His optics cut and he built together with self-made machines.

On October 10, 1846, he discovered Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, only 17 days after the discovery of the planet by Johann Gottfried Galle. In 1848 he discovered independently Hyperion, the eighth moon of Saturn. In 1851 he discovered two new moons of Uranus, which are named after a proposal by the astronomer John Herschel " Ariel " and " Umbriel ".

When the British Queen Victoria in 1851 visited Liverpool, Lassell was the only person they wish to make explicit. In 1855, he built a 120 - cm telescope, which he installed for better observation conditions on the island of Malta.

Lassell in 1849 was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1858 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society. From 1870 to 1872 he was the president of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In his memory, a crater on Earth's Moon and the planet Mars and the asteroid ( 2636 ) Lassell were each named after him.