On the line – August 2009

Simon Nosworthy: Hello, I’m Simon Nosworthy. I’m a Gallery Assistant at the National Maritime Museum. At the Museum, Gallery Assistants often give talks for visitors about the curious stories, facts and histories behind some of the objects in our collections. One of my favourites is a tale from the Royal Observatory - a tale about a Stellar Cinderella.

Tucked away at the back of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich is an old and battered metal hulk, the remains of a giant! 220 years ago, at 40ft long, it was the largest telescope in the world. It was built by the astronomer William Herschel, renowned for discovering the planet Uranus. He was a great man who advanced our understanding of the universe and made a huge contribution to the field of astronomy. But let me tell you something else about him - he had a helping hand - someone helped him build the biggest telescope in the world, someone was there when he discovered Uranus, someone nursed him in sickness and risked their life for him. Someone kept his memory alive long after his death but faded into obscurity after theirs. That person was Caroline Herschel - William’s sister.

What drew me to this amazing story was Caroline’s relative obscurity today considering how much she achieved. It was the way she earned her place in history that impressed me - not through attention-grabbing theories and experiments or earth-shattering discoveries, but through sheer hard work, forensic attention to detail and her indefatigable zeal. Driven by powerful conflicting forces, she transcended her destiny - a life of servitude - to become a distinguished astronomer and a national hero. Poverty, death, disease, war, her mother - all obstacles that failed to stop her fulfilling her dream of independence.

Caroline’s determination to be useful to others meant she was happy to work in the background whilst others built their careers in the glare of publicity. As well as playing a major part in the success of her brother William, she also tutored and assisted his son John, who later went on to become the famous John Herschel, one of Britain’s greatest astronomers.

Caroline’s influence over fellow astronomers was not limited to her family; she was admired and respected by the top astronomers of her day. In 1797 she decided to produce an update to the book that was responsible for the existence of the Royal Observatory - a book that was regarded by many astronomers with almost religious reverence, The Flamsteed Catalogue of Stars. The book that was designed to solve the problem of longitude, saving the lives of thousands of men lost at sea. It was a mark of the esteem Caroline was held in that she was allowed to go anywhere near the book, and the Royal Society paid for the whole project. The catalogue was in two volumes and contained numerous errors. Caroline reduced it to one volume, took out all the errors, added an extra 561 stars and recalculated the positions of 3000 stars. Her update was a huge improvement on the original and played an important role in the careers of astronomers for years to come. In fact it's still useful to astronomers today. You can see the original catalogue on display at the Greenwich Royal Observatory alongside its rivals in the search for longitude, the magnificent Harrison clocks.

Caroline’s reputation was not only built on her usefulness to other astronomers - she had many discoveries to her name. In 1786 she became the first woman to discover a comet. At that time there was intense rivalry with the French in the field of cometary astronomy, so Caroline’s discovery was a victory for Britain. She became a national hero and a celebrity. She discovered another seven comets and many nebulas - clouds of dust and debris in the sky where stars are formed. In her old age Caroline produced a catalogue of all of the discoveries she and William had made - they increased the number of known nebulae from 100 to two and a half thousand.

Caroline Herschel is remembered today, mainly, as her brother’s helper, but she was much more than that. She was a great scientist and an influential astronomer who deserves to be recognised for her own achievements.

To find out more about the Gallery Favourites talks that are on this month in the Museum, please visit our website at nmm.ac.uk/favourites.

Thank you and goodbye.