255. Herschel’s modest salary, though it would have sufficed for his
own and his sister’s personal wants, was of course insufficient to
meet the various expenses involved in making and mounting telescopes.
The skill which he had now acquired in the art was, however, such that
his telescopes were far superior to any others which were available,
and as his methods were his own, there was a considerable demand for
instruments made by him. Even while at Bath he had made and sold a
number, and for years after moving to the neighbourhood of Windsor he
derived a considerable income from this source, the royal family and a
number of distinguished British and foreign astronomers being among his
customers.
The necessity for employing his valuable time in this way fortunately
came to an end in 1788, when he married a lady with a considerable
fortune; Caroline lived henceforward in lodgings close to her brother,
but worked for him with unabated zeal.
By the end of 1783 Herschel had finished a telescope 20 feet in length
with a great mirror 18 inches in diameter, and with this instrument
most of his best work was done; but he was not yet satisfied that he
had reached the limit of what was possible. During the last winter
at Bath he and his brother had spent a great deal of labour in an
unsuccessful attempt to construct a 30-foot telescope; the discovery
of Uranus and its consequences prevented the renewal of the attempt
for some time, but in 1785 he began a 40-foot telescope with a mirror
four feet in diameter, the expenses of which were defrayed by a special
grant from the King. While it was being made Herschel tried a new
form of construction of reflecting telescopes, suggested by Lemaire
in 1732 but never used, by which a considerable gain of brilliancy
was effected, but at the cost of some loss of distinctness. This
=Herschelian= or =front-view= construction, as it is called, was
first tried with the 20-foot, and led to the discovery (January 11th,
1787) of two satellites of Uranus, _Oberon_ and _Titania_; it was
henceforward regularly employed. After several mishaps the 40-foot
telescope (fig. 82) was successfully constructed. On the first evening
on which it was employed (August 28th, 1789) a sixth satellite of
Saturn (_Enceladus_) was detected, and on September 17th a much fainter
seventh satellite (_Mimas_). Both satellites were found to be nearer to
the planet than any of the five hitherto discovered, Mimas being the
nearer of the two (cf. fig. 91).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account