William and Caroline Herschel and the discovery of Uranus

Observing with a home-made telescope from the garden of 19 New King Street, the musician William Herschel noticed an object that turned out to be a new planet, later named Uranus. It was the first planet found since antiquity and doubled the known width of the solar system. His sister Caroline, who worked beside him, went on to discover comets in her own right.