Thread by @hchaturv

Times we are talking about is 1740's..
She was 8th and youngest...by 8 she had seen death of two of the sisters..
10 yr old..she gets typhus her blocking her physical growth and loss of vision in left eye .. rest of life she would be about 4ft ..1/n

Assumed she would never get married...her mother thought it's best for her to be trained as house servant..rather than getting education like boys..and as wished by her Father..
He would sneek in Mother's absence and tutor her.. 2/n

Though most of her time went in household chores.. she would join brothers during their lessons whenever she could..she was forbidden to learn French, basic education or even advanced needlework ...
what if she starts to work independently...who would do the chores !

At 22, after passing away of her father ..she travels to England to join her musician brother as a singer ..
On the journey to England ...she gets introduced to Astronomy ..amazed by the Constellations and night sky..

Once in England... 1770's..she takes responsibility of her brother's household and dedicates herself to LEARNING.. something she always wanted ..
She started learning Music, English, Maths from her brother and dance from local teacher..

Soon she would rise to become reputated singer, vocalist performing in best of concerts...
She declines to sing for anyone except her brother ...
And it's here life takes an unexpected turn...
From acclaimed musician Her brother takes to Astronomy ..
And she joins him..

Despite her eagerness to further her career as singer...she would join her brother on studying astronomy..as her brother would ground lenses...make their own telescopes better than existing ones...studying night sky and book keeping of planetary positions...

She would spent many hours polishing mirrors and mounting telescopes..
copy astronomical catalogues..
record, reduce, and organize her brother's astronomical observations.

While Brother worked on catalogue of 3,000 stars ..She was asked to "sweep" the sky, meticulously moving through the sky in strips to search for interesting objects...
After nights of sweeping sky Next day breakfast brother would share his research findings with her..

On 13th March 1781, the Brother discovers the planet Uranus ...
1783, Sister makes her first discovery: she had found a nebula that was not included in the catalogue. That same night, she independently discovered Messier 110 the second companion of the Andromeda Galaxy.

the summer of 1783, Brother finished building a comet-searching telescope for his sister.. which she began to use immediately.
This is the telescope brother made for his sister..

It was difficult to both observe and record objects, so She sat by a window inside, and brother shouted his observations which she referred in catalogue and recorded it ..
This went out for nights.....after nights...

In next 10 years to come...
She would discover Eight Comets ...
Publish 5 of them..
Brother would be called by Royal family to explain demonstrate her comets..which he described as my sister's comet....

Being one of the first woman to discover a Comet...she discovered 8 of them..and was rewarded by the Royal family to get a Salary for being Brother's assistant..
She became first woman in England on govt position and first woman to get a Salary for astronomy..

In 1802...Royal Society would publish her catalogue under Brother's name...which had 500 more nebulae and star clusters along with 2000 other known ones...
She would arrange 2500 of these in a catalogue still being used..

1822, the brother passes away and grief stricken sister loses her mentor friend and associate of life...
She continues to work.indepenently and assisting her nephew to arrange the new discoveries and studying astronomy..

In 1828, She was presented with Gold Medal from Royal Society of Astronomy...
For next more than 160 years..Till 1996, No woman would be awarded the same again...

In 1838, 97 yr old passed away and be buried with the lock of hairs of her brother..

Together the brother and sister would discover 2400 astronomical objects over 20 years !!

Crater on moon and asteroid is named after her...
Inducted as member of Royal Astronomical society she would be one of the two First women to get elected...
Brother: William Herschel
Sister: Caroline Herschel. n/n

A thread story guess may be of your interest..
@ydnadydnad @S_Sivakumar @RohiniBakshi

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