Caroline Herschel

Caroline Lucretia Herschel ( born March 16, 1750 in Hannover, † January 9, 1848 ibid ) was a German astronomer.

At the beginning of their scientific career, she supported her brother William Herschel in his research, but soon shone through independent services. Your most important contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets of calculating accurate astronomical reductions and the zone catalog of hundreds of star clusters and nebulae.

Life

Caroline Herschel had a sister and four brothers. Besides Wilhelm Herschel Herschel her brother Alexander as a musician and astronomer worked. She grew up on military musician Isaac Herschel and his wife Anna Ilse Herschel in Hanover as the only girl of six surviving children. The father was anxious to give his children a musical education. And in the house Herschel played music not only much, but also philosophizes and operated astronomy.

Caroline wrote in her memoirs:

"My father was a great admirer of astronomy and had some knowledge in science. I remember that on a cold night he took me to the streets to familiarize myself with some of our most beautiful constellations known after we had before a comet that was just visible, was observed. "

Hanover and England

Every day they visited together with her brothers a few hours the garrison school so that she could learn to read and write, which was at that time for a girl from middle class not self-evident. However, many hours of the day she spent against her will to knitting, embroidery and all kinds of household activities. The mother said that she " should remain raw logs and, but, however, a useful " one. The idea that they - according to the will of her mother - should be designed for a seamstress and before her stands a future as a mere household power was intolerable to her. She wanted to lead a life that is presented and mental demands on them. Therefore, they held on to the wish of his father, who foresaw for them, as for her four brothers, a musical education, in their case to a concert singer.

1772 followed a 22 -year-old her twelve- year-older brother, Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel to England, who worked as an organist and concert director in the prestigious Bath. He needed her as a housekeeper, but wanted to give an opportunity to escape the home strait, educate yourself musically and to participate as a soloist in his concerts do you. She soon rose to the first singer in the oratorios given by her brother, reached by a certain reputation, and took over management functions in the choir. This meant that she was offered an engagement with the Birmingham Festival, but she refused because she wanted to perform only under the supervision of their beloved and honored brother.

Caroline now devoted himself next to the budgetary and their performances also astronomy; For example, she helped William the making of reflecting telescopes. Their main task was to polish the mirror and grind; in this activity, it arrived on absolute accuracy. In addition to the practical activities they dealt with astronomical theory. She learned the algebraic formulas for calculations and reductions as a basis for the monitoring and screening of the sky.

Turn by Uranus discovery

In 1781 her brother William by chance discovered at a sky survey the planet Uranus, which made him known beyond the country's borders. In addition to numerous honors, he got a job in the town of Slough as an astronomer of King George III. offered, which he gratefully accepted. Now he could devote himself to his true passion.

For Caroline, the discovery of Uranus meant a new turning point in their lives. You had the choice to continue her successful career as a singer in Bath or follow her brother as a research assistant. They chose the latter and got a job as an assistant on the farm of her brother with a salary of 50 pounds a year. Now Caroline began with his own exploration of the night sky. She devoted herself with a small Newtonian telescope the comet search. They discovered in 1783 three remarkable fog and 1786-1797 eight comets, five of which have undoubted priority, including the Encke 's Comet. In 1797 it submitted to the Royal Society an index to John Flamsteed's observations before, together with a catalog of 561 stars missing in the British Catalogue, as well as a list of errors in this publication.

Many nights she stayed with her brother on an observation post, noted the positions of stars, which he called out to her from the other end of the built by themselves giant telescope, evaluated the nocturnal records and expected them to, wrote essays for the Philosophical Transactions, discovered fourteen fog, calculated hundreds of them and began a catalog of star clusters and nebulae, which are now called deep-sky objects to customize. In addition, she wrote a supplemental catalog to Flamsteed's Atlas, which included 561 stars, as well as a total of registers.

For this work, she was given the highest recognition, including Carl Friedrich Gauss and Johann Franz Encke. Nevertheless, she remained modest woman she had always been. Your biographer Renate feyl comments:

" Up to the end of her life she tried to highlight any reference to his own performance as only the merit of her famous brother. [ ... ] You dare to know, but do not want to admit publicly this venture. Continued she emphasizes how useless, how incapable, unfit as it was. This is her lifelong gesture of humility and apology that she dares, quiet, but lasting tackle the violence of habits and to take on their way what a human being is entitled. , The right to knowledge "

1822 died in her beloved brother William. Now she held nothing in England. A few weeks after his death, Caroline Herschel moved back to her hometown of Hanover, she had almost fifty years before leaving as a young woman. Here she continued her astronomical studies. She arranged the extensive material that had left her brother, by sorting the records of the common observations made by zenith distance and right ascension. In this way, they also allowed her nephew John Herschel, systematically continue the work of his father and extend to the southern sky.

Late recognition of professional

The most important scholars they sought in their simple house on the market street, in order to assure their favor and appreciation. Even the royal court she had contact. Numerous awards were presented her - 1828, among other things, the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, in whose honor a member, she was appointed in 1835. She was the first woman to have received acknowledgments of this kind. Occasion was their so-called zone catalog that they had created in memory of her brother. It contained the reduced observations of all discovered by William Herschel nebulae and star clusters. 1838 appointed the Royal Irish Academy of Sciences in Dublin the 88 -year-old Caroline Herschel to their member. 1846 she received at the age of 96 years on behalf of the King of Prussia the gold medal of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Still on her 97th birthday, she received the visit of the royal couple, a few hours entertained lively with them and sang them in conclusion to a song that had her brother composed seventy years before. Caroline Herschel died on January 9, 1848. She reached the ripe old age of 97 years. She was buried in the garden cemetery in Hanover, where her grave even now is.

Honors

The comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet was named after her, as is the lunar crater C. Herschel in Sinus Iridium ( Bay of Rainbows ) and the asteroid (281) Lucretia.

In Braunschweig, Bremen, Darmstadt, Munich and Peine streets in Berlin- Friedrichshain of Caroline Herschel space is named after her.

Works

• Caroline Herschel: memoirs and correspondence. Edited by Mrs. John Herschel. Berlin 1877 Reprint: . Hildesheim 2013 ISBN 978-3-487-15010-9.
• Mrs. John Herschel (ed.): Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel; Published by John Murray, London 1877 Book online read in the Internet Archive
• Michael Hoskin (ed.): Caroline Herschel 's autobiographies; Cambridge: Science History Publications, 2003; ISBN 0-905193-06-7