But she was far more than a mere relative of these immortal leaders in astronomic science. She herself was an astronomer of distinction, and is known, in the annals of astronomy, as the discoverer of no fewer than eight comets. Great, however, as was her skill as an observer and computer, it was as her brother's assistant that she is entitled to the most distinction. Her affection for him was as unbounded as her devotion to his life work was abiding and productive of great results. For fifty years, after joining him in England--they both had been born and bred in Hanover--she was ever at his side, to assist him in his labors and to cheer him by her words of counsel and encouragement. She helped him to grind and polish the mirrors that were used in his epoch-making reflectors. This was a most arduous task; for, at that time, there was no machinery sufficiently exact for grinding specula, and, as a consequence, the work had all to be done by hand. So interested was the great astronomer in his work, when polishing his larger specula, that he forgot all about the passage of time, and on these occasions his sister was constantly obliged, as she herself informs us, "to feed him by putting the victuals by bits into his mouth by way of keeping him alive." When finishing his seven-foot reflector he was on one occasion found so intent on his work that "he had not taken his hands from it for sixteen hours together." In our day, when all kinds of astronomical apparatus are made by machinery, it is difficult for us to realize what stupendous labor was required to produce those giant telescopes with which the Herschels made their great discoveries and by which they, at the same time, revolutionized the science of the stars. For they had not only to design and make the specula, but also the mountings of the mirrors as well. And, in order to obtain the money required for material and workmen, they were obliged to make telescopes for sale. This meant an immense loss of precious time that would otherwise have been devoted to the study of the heavens. After long years of struggle, during which the devoted brother and sister overcame countless difficulties of every kind, their condition was somewhat ameliorated by financial aid from the government and by William's appointment to the position of astronomer royal with a salary of L200 a year. When Sir William Watson heard that this limited sum had been granted by George III to the discoverer of Georgium Sidus--the planet now known as Uranus--he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honor so cheap."