I just finished a very nice book about Caroline Herschel by Claire Brock. The Comet Sweeper follows Caroline's rise to fame in the late 18th century. First as an assistant to Wm Herschel and later to her nephew John, Caroline had a large number of her own accomplishments of her own. The NGC catalog was mostly her organization of the o servations that the siblings made.
As a finder of comets, Caroline ranked in the upper tier of discoverers of her time. Entirely self taught, Caroline taught herself math, singing, and astronomy. When she was provided a yearly stipend by king George III she may have been the first professional female scientist and was certainly the first female professional astronomer.
For readers in the San Antonio Astronomy club, I will be making the book available at a meeting soon.
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I've got a book for your next astronomy read. I'll let you borrow it next time I see you. I need to give you Starlight Nights Back.... It was an excellent read!
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