12 A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN ASTRONOMY. 



He also continued the work of telescope-making, 

 and constructed, in 1789, his 40-foot reflector, 

 the wonder of the age. In 1787 his sister 

 was appointed his assistant, and together the 

 Herschels worked from dusk to dawn. Caroline 

 Herschel herself detected eight comets and 

 numerous nebulae. She relates in her memoirs 

 that on one occasion, while she was acting as 

 assistant, the ink froze in her pen. But such 

 inconveniences mattered not to the Herschels. 

 As Miss Clerke has well remarked, " Every 

 serene dark night was to him a precious oppor- 

 tunity, availed of to the last minute. The 

 thermometer might descend below zero, ink 

 might freeze, mirrors might crack ; but, pro- 

 vided the stars shone, he and his sister worked 

 on from dusk to dawn. . . . On one occasion he 

 is said to have worked without intermission 

 at the telescope and the desk for seventy-two 

 hours." 



Honours were showered on Herschel. He was 

 knighted in 1816, and became President of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society in 1820, besides 

 receiving several honorary degrees. But honours 

 in no way elated him. Advancing years in no 

 way affected his wonderful mind. But his duties 

 as King's Astronomer necessitated his acting as 

 " showman of the heavens " on the visits of 



