It sometimes was in 1781 that Herschel made the great discovery whichimmediately established his fame as an astronomer, and enabled himto turn from conducting concerts to the far higher work ofprofessionally observing the stars. 0n the evening of Tuesday, March13th, Herschel was engaged in his usual systematic survey of thesky, a bit at a time, when his telescope lighted among a group ofsmall fixed stars upon what he at first imagined to be a very new comet.It proved to be no comet, however, but a true planet--a veritableworld, revolving like our own in a nearly circular path around thesun as centre, though far more remote from it than the most distantplanet then known, Saturn. Herschel called his very new world theGeorgium Sidus (King George's star) in honour of the reigningmonarch; but it has since been known as Uranus. Astronomers allover Europe were soon apprised of this wonderful discovery, and thepath of the freshly found planet was computed by calculation, itsdistance from the sun being settled at nineteen times that of ourown earth.