This beautifully structured book presents the essentials of William and Caroline Herschel's pioneering achievements in late 18th-century astronomy. Michael Hoskin shows that William Herschel was the first observational cosmologist and one of the first observers to attack the sidereal universe beyond the solar system:

• Herschel built instruments far better than any being used at the royal observatory.
• Aided by his sister Caroline, he commenced a great systematic survey that led to his discovery of Uranus in 1781.
• Unlike observers before him, whose telescopes did...