Memoiren und Briefwechsel

“The object of last night is a comet”. This note made by Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) in her diary on 2 August 1786 documents the defining moment in her life when she began to rise above the insignificance of most contemporary women into the ascendant world of science. Raised by her mother to be a seamstress and without formal education, she was encouraged by her father to practise music. But it was her brother William (1738-1822), who took her with him to his home in the southern English city of Bath in 1772 who offered the cheerful young woman a successful career. ‘Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel’, published in London and New York in 1876 and in German translation in 1877, contains diary entries and letters written by the famous astronomer. The author gives a lively and exact account of her childhood in Hanover and her journey to England to keep house for her brothers William and Alexander, who worked as musicians but were interested in astronomy and built telescopes in their spare time. Caroline helped William in his regular observations of the sky at night, transcribing and organising his data during the day. In 1781 her brother discovered the planet Uranus and in 1782 was appointed Astronomer Royal. On the discovery of her first comet – there would be seven more – Caroline received a permanent royal grant. After William’s death she revised his and her own works and was honoured for this by being elected to various learned societies. As a result of her fame she met and corresponded with important figures of the time such as Carl Friedrich Gauss, Alexander von Humboldt and the violinist and composer Paganini.