William and Caroline Herschel are portrayed in a colored lithograph by A. Diethe.

These musician siblings became rock stars—in astronomy

200 years before Queen’s Brian May became an astrophysicist, William and Caroline Herschel set aside their musical instruments to build telescopes and discover comets, galaxies—and even a planet.

Relative values

Caroline Herschel's diaries record her move in 1772 from Hanover to England to assist her brother (both depicted in a colored lithograph): “I had to struggle against homesickness and knew too little English to derive any consolation from society.” In the following decades she records her integration into English society, her burgeoning interest in William’s astronomy, and her own observations. An entry from August 31, 1791, reads: “I began to sweep at 1.30, from the horizon through the Pleiades up as high as the head of Medusa. Afterwards I continued with horizontal sweeps till daylight was too strong for seeing any longer.”
Album/Wellcome Images
This content is Subscriber-Exclusive
You must have a National Geographic subscription to explore this article.

Read This Next

AI can help you plan your next trip—if you know how to ask.
Did this mysterious human relative bury its dead?
This new birth control for cats doesn't require surgery

Go Further

Subscriber Exclusive Content

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet

Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars?

How viruses shape our world

The era of greyhound racing in the U.S. is coming to an end

See how people have imagined life on Mars through history

See how NASA’s new Mars rover will explore the red planet