William Herschel Discovered Uranus William Herschel was born in 1738 and was known as a musician; he taught, composed, and performed music. However, he became interested in astronomy and began viewing the stars through a telescope that he had borrowed. Later, he began designing his own telescopes which enabled him to view objects at a greater distance.Instead of randomly studying the sky at night, he worked methodically across the entire sky and carefully wrote down his observations. In fact, he and his sister, Carolyn, spent a great amount of time mapping the entire night sky. On March 13, 1781, Herschel observed a moving object and believed it was a comet. He discussed his findings with his peers within the science community and through