Frederick william herschel biography template

German-born British astronomer and composer (1738–1822)

For other uses, see William Herschel (disambiguation).

Frederick William Herschel^[2][3]KH, FRS (HUR-shəl;^[4]German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel[ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈvɪlhɛlmˈhɛʁʃl̩]; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-British^[5]astronomer and composer.

He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover, William Herschel followed his father into the military band of Hanover, before emigrating to Britain in 1757 at the age of nineteen.

Herschel constructed his first large telescope in 1774, after which he spent nine years carrying out sky surveys to investigate double stars. Herschel published catalogues of nebulae in 1802 (2,500 objects) and in 1820 (5,000 objects).

The resolving power of the Herschel telescopes revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier ca