William Herschel was a very intelligent self-taught astronomer. His desire to learn more about the Heavens and how were they made seems to have been his biggest motivation. He was an amateur astronomer, but he was very good at it. In March 1781, Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. At first, like many other astronomers before him, he thought it was a star or a comet. He later realized that he was looking at an entirely new planet. This was a significant discovery because many had seen it before and didn’t realize it was a planet. It was also the first discovery of a new planet since ancient times. Herschel’s discovery relied mostly on Galileo’s invention of the telescope. He was able to tell that it wasn’t just another star because he was