1 For details of the life of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, see Michael Hoskin, Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel (Princeton, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For biographies of Isaac and of each of his children, see Michael Hoskin, The Herschels of Hanover (Cambridge, 2007).Google Scholar

3 Private and Personal Acts 1793, c. 38.

4 Caroline’s story is told in her own words in Caroline Herschel’s Autobiographies, ed. by Michael Hoskin (Cambridge, 2003), and more generally in Michael Hoskin, The Herschel Partnership: As Viewed by Caroline (Cambridge, 2003).

5 Robert Smith, A Compleat System of Opticks (2 vols, Cambridge, 1738).Google Scholar

6 James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles (1st edn, London, 1756).Google Scholar Herschel bought a copy of one of the many later editions.

7 The classic article on Herschel’s telescopes is J. A. Bennett, “‘On the power of penetrating into space’: The telescopes of William Herschel”, JHA, 7 (1976), 75–108.Google Scholar See also Andreas Maurer, “A compendium of all known William Herschel telescopes”, Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, no. 14 (1998), 4–15.Google Scholar

8 Michael Hoskin, “Vocations in conflict: William Herschel in Bath, 1766–1782”, History of Science, 41 (2003), 315–333.

9 RAS W.2/1.1, f. 1.

10 Roy Porter, “William Herschel, Bath, and the Philosophical Society”, in G. E. Hunt (ed.), Uranus and the Outer Planets (Cambridge, 1982), 23–34.Google Scholar

11 Caroline Herschel’s Autobiographies (ref. 4), 60, 131.Google Scholar

12 Banks to Herschel, 15 March 1782, RAS W.1/13.B.4.

13 J. A. Bennett, “Herschel’s scientific apprenticeship and the discovery of Uranus”, in Hunt (ed.), Uranus and the Outer Planets (ref. 10), 35–53.