Uranus was discovered by the famous British astronomer William Herschel on March 13, 1781. On that day, William Herschel and his sister used a homemade telescope to observe the Gemini sky as planned and accidentally discovered a highlight that did not belong to this area. William Herschel realized at a glance that this was not a star, because no matter how the star zoomed in on the observation caliber, it was always a small highlight, and this planet obviously had a circle, which should be a planet. Uranus, the seventh largest planet in the solar system, was discovered by chance.
Herchel brothers and sisters
Herchel telescope
Uranus
In fact, before William Herchel brothers and sisters, many astronomers had observed Uranus, and some people even observed it many times, but they all regarded it as a star.
Currently, it is found that the earliest Uranus observation record was December 23, 1690. On this day, Franstid, the first director of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich in the Taurus region, observed Uranus in the Taurus area and marked it on the star map. Unfortunately, Franstid regarded it as a star. Since then, Franstid observed Uranus four times in 1712 and 1715, but he has never doubted Uranus' identity and has always regarded it as a star.
GMT Royal Observatory
1748 and 1750, Bradre, the third director of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, also observed Uranus twice, and he failed to recognize that it was a planet.
1756 German astronomer Meyer also lost the opportunity to become famous in one fell swoop. In the process of making the star ephemeris, he recorded Uranus as a star.
The most regrettable thing is the French astronomer Le Monne, who observed Uranus 12 times in 21 years, twice in 1750, once in 1764, twice in 1768, six times in 1769, and once in 1771. Among them, from December 27, 1768 to January 23, 1769, Lemoney observed Uranus eight times, but he "turned a blind eye" to it, allowing Uranus to slip away from his nose. In fact, as long as Lemonne carefully checks the observation records during this period, it is very likely to find Uranus that is "hidden" among the many stars.
This incident tells us again that no matter any major scientific research achievements or major discoveries, they are often attributed to serious, careful and meticulous work, and carelessness is the biggest enemy to success.
