Discovery of Uranus

On 13 March 1781 the amateur astronomer William Herschel, observing from his house in Bath, England, noticed an object that looked like a small disc rather than a point of light. He first took it for a comet, but follow-up observations and orbital calculations by other astronomers showed that it moved in a nearly circular path far beyond Saturn. It was the first planet found with the aid of a telescope, and it roughly doubled the known size of the Solar System. Herschel wished to name it after King George III, but astronomers eventually settled on Uranus, in keeping with the classical names of the other planets. The discovery brought him royal patronage and a full-time career in astronomy, and later irregularities in the orbit of Uranus would lead to the search for Neptune.

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