History of Discovery of Uranus and Neptune

Friedrich Wilhem Hershel
	-1738 Born in Hanover (to be part of German mid 19th century)
		his Father is a military musician
	-1752 He becomes musician in military at age 14
	-1757 Moves to England
	-1760 Becomes Instructor in Music
	-1766 Organist at Octagon Chapel in Bath England
	-1773 Rents a small, poor quality telescope
		decides to build his own and learns to cast 
		speculum metal mirrors (brittle and shiny)
			Speculum: 9lb copper, 5lb tin
		First telescope was 160 mm diameter with 2 meter focal length
	-1781, 	March 13: saw moving 'comet' in Taurus
			Taurus was high in the sky and near the zenith 
			at the time. Moon did not rise until 11pm
		".. between 10 and 11 while examining small stars
		in the neighborhood of H Geminorum, I perceieved one
		that appeared large than th rest... suspected a comet...
		put on powers of 460 and 932 and found the diameter 
		increased..."

			
		March 17: saw same 'comet'
		Report to Maskelyne (Astronomer Royal in England)
		No tail ==> implies a PLANET!
	
		King George III was informed and created a new position of
		King's Astronomer at 200 pounds/year

		Herschel named it 'Georgium Sidus' and 
		was listed as 'Georgian' until 1850
		Other Astronomers prefered Uranus 
			(Father of Saturn and originator of Astronomy)
		Uranus was more popular in Europe and it stuck.		
	
	-1787 Hershel discovers Titania and Oberon 
		(largest satellites of Uranus)
		(he also claimed four others which were really stars)

	-- Son, John, becomes famous astronomer, 
		the first to observe from South Africa
	-- Sister, Carolyn, was an avid astronomer also
---------------------------

Discovery of Neptune

	-1841 John Couch Adams - 22 year old student in Astronomy 
		and Math at Cambridge University works on the the 
		orbit of Uranus 
		75 years of data on orbit [1754-1830 and 1818-1826]
		from Astronomer Royal G.B.Airy
		(note there were observations before discovery of Uranus)
	-1843 College Fellowship at Cambridge on Graduation
	-1845 Predicts the position of an unobserved planet perturbing the
		orbit of Uranus.

	Assumptions of orbit of Neptune:
		plane of orbit: same as Uranus
		size of planet: same as Uranus
		distance from Sun: 38.8 AU from Bode-Titus Rule
		type of orbit: circular
		
	Note: all these are reasonably true 
	There was lack of enthusiam from Airy and Cambridge astronomers 
	who delayed obsevation.

	-1845 Leverrier in France published (June) predicted position of Neptune
		(agrees with Adams within 1 degree)

	PROBLEM: Star charts were not good enough to show what should be
		in the region. 
	-1845 September, 23 Galle in Germany (who had just made new charts of
		the sky) discovered Neptune 1 hour after start of observations.
		(2 degrees from Saturn in Aquaius 
		Note: set ECU up to show the sky for the discovery date.)

	-1846 Williams Lassell discovered the larges satellite of Neptune
		Triton