John Herschel · Asteria Star

Biography

John Herschel, son of William, extended the family's surveys to the southern skies from the Cape of Good Hope. His General Catalogue of nebulae and clusters became the backbone of the later New General Catalogue (NGC). A pioneer of photography, he coined the terms 'positive' and 'negative' and named many moons of Saturn and Uranus.

Scientific contributions

Catalogued the southern-hemisphere nebulae and stars
Extended his father's deep-sky surveys into a general catalogue
Named seven moons of Saturn and four of Uranus; pioneered photography

Knowledge connections

Influenced byWilliam Herschel
Part ofModern Astronomy

Sources & references

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica
General reference for the history of astronomy, biographies, and cultural context.
OpenNGCOpenNGC (M. Verga) — NGC/IC, Messier, and Caldwell catalogue data
Openly-licensed deep-sky catalogue: object types, positions, magnitudes, sizes, morphology, and cross-identifiers.

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