›The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Lecture

Professor Stuart Eves of the British Interplanetary Society will give a RAL Lecture on Thursday 30th January 2020 Refreshments available from 14:30, Lecture will commence at 15:00

William Herschel and the Rings of Uranus

It is generally believed that the ring system around the planet Uranus was discovered during an occultation experiment in 1977. 

Remarkably, however, the first possible observations of a ring around Uranus were reported some 180 years earlier, in a paper which William Herschel presented to the Royal Society in December 1797.

In later papers, even Herschel himself questioned the veracity of his own observations, but in the light of various recent discoveries, it is suggested that his earlier claims should be re-evaluated.

This talk will present the observational evidence, and then discuss various mechanisms which may explain how Herschel was potentially able to observe the rings when later observers could not.

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