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What object did William Herschel notice during his 1781 survey of the sky?
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William Herschel
Sir William Herschel, detail of an oil painting by L. Abbott, 1785; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
During his third and most complete survey of the night sky in 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.1
He realized the object was not an ordinary star, marking the first discovery of a planet since prehistoric times. This achievement brought him immediate fame, leading to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and an appointment as an astronomer to King George III.1