Sir William Herschel is most famous to most people for his discovery of Uranus. However to astronomers and physicists his work on the development of telescopes, ideas about the Universe and his understanding of infra red radiation are also very important.

He made many important discoveries. He was the first to really understand how enormous the Universe is, and the idea of light years. He wrote, "I have looked farther into space than ever human being did before me. I have seen stars whose light it will be proved has taken two million light years to reach us."

Herschel was right - but it took over 100 years before his theory could be proved. In 1816 William Herschel was knighted and in 1822 he died in Slough. He was buried in the chancel of St Laurence's church. In the late 1960s Observatory House was demolished, a commemorative sculpture stands there now.
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