Caroline Herschel

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) was a German-British astronomer who worked alongside her brother William Herschel for much of her career while also making significant discoveries of her own. After moving to England to assist William, she became his primary observing partner, grinding lenses, maintaining his telescopes and meticulously recording and cataloguing his observations. Beginning in the 1780s, Caroline conducted her own systematic sweeps of the sky and discovered eight comets between 1786 and 1797, along with several nebulae and star clusters, including what is now catalogued as the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet. In 1787 King George III granted her an annual salary for her assistant work, making her the first woman in Britain paid for scientific work. In 1828 the Royal Astronomical Society awarded her its Gold Medal for her star-catalogue work.