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Their diurnal motion is nearly the same, the obliquity of their respective ecliptics not very different; of all the superior planets the distance of Mars from the sun is by far the nearest, alike to that of the earth; nor will the length of the Martial year appear very different from what we enjoy when compared to the surprising duration of the years of Jupiter, Saturn and the Georgian Sidus.
Lexell was the first to suspect that this was a new planet eighteen times as far from the sun as the earth is. In January, 1783, Laplace published the elliptic elements. The discoverer of a planet has a right to name it, so Herschel called it Georgium Sidus, after the king. But Lalande urged the adoption of the name Herschel. Bode suggested Uranus, and this was adopted.
If he hadn't just happened to turn his telescope in that particular direction on that particular night, he wouldn't have seen this Georgium Sidus they made such a fuss about at all. Quite so. And if he hadn't built a twenty-foot telescope for himself, he wouldn't have turned it anywhere at any time. But Herschel himself knew better.
Thus working away, Herschel discovered the Georgium Sidus, the orbit and rate of motion of which he carefully calculated, and sent the result to the Royal Society; when the humble oboe player found himself at once elevated from obscurity to fame. He was shortly after appointed Astronomer Royal, and by the kindness of George III. was placed in a position of honourable competency for life.
Latrat et amittit, humilis, vilis, negat, heret: Est celeste Canis sidus, in amne natat. 'Firstly it is a thing that barks': three verses of quotation follow. 'Secondly it loses; canis being the name for the worst throw with the dice': one verse of quotation. 'Thirdly it is something humble: David to Saul, "After whom is the King of Israel come out? after a dead dog? after a flea?"
Pray who can tell what would be the consequence of a visit from some of the inhabitants of Saturn, or the Georgium Sidus, should they open up their ultramundane treasures in sight of the British court?
When playing the oboe in the pump-room at Bath, he would retire while the dancers were lounging round the room, go out and take a peep at the heavens through his telescope, and quietly return to his instrument. It was while he was thus maintaining himself by music, that he discovered the Georgium Sidus. When the Royal Society recognized his discovery, the oboe-player suddenly found himself famous.
"At the Georgium Sidus, the direct influence of the sun is 360 times less than at the earth, and the sun is there seen at an angle not much greater than that under which we behold Venus, when nearest. Yet may not the mean temperature of the Georgium Sidus be nearly the same as that of the earth?
'Micat inter omnes Julium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores. 'And like the Moon, the feebler fires among, Conspicuous shines the Julian star. FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, i. 12. 46. See ante, iii. 209. 'The little blood that creeps within his veins Is but just warmed in a hot fever's pains. DRYDEN. Juvenal, Satires, x. 217. Lunardi had made, on Sept. 15, the first balloon ascent in England. Gent.
As already stated, Herschel named it, in compliment to George III., the Georgium Sidus; in this copying the example of Galileo with his "Medicaean stars." Afterwards, astronomers christened it Herschel, and subsequently Uranus, in conformity with the mythological nomenclature of the other planets.
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