Family of British astronomers, including Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who discovered Uranus (1781) and cataloged more than 800 double stars and 2,400 previously unknown nebulae and other deep-sky objects. His sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) assisted in his work and discovered numerous comets. His son Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871) cataloged nearly 2,000 more deep-sky objects and conducted notable research on light, photography, and astrophysics.