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William Lassell (June 18 1799 – October 5 1880) was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
  astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
.

Born in Bolton
Bolton

Bolton is a large town in Greater Manchester, in the North West England region of England.Situated close to the West Pennine Moors, north west of the city of Manchester, it is the largest and most populous settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, the former county borough of Bolton has a population of 139,403, though this figure d...
, he made his fortune as a beer brewer
Brewing

Brewing is the production of alcoholic beverages and alcohol fuel through fermentation . The term is used for the production of beer, although the word "brewing" is also used to describe the fermentation process used to create wine and mead....
, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
. He built an observatory near Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 with a reflector telescope
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
, for which he pioneered the use of an equatorial mount
Equatorial mount

An equatorial mount is a mount that has one rotational axis parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used with telescopes, satellite dishes, and cameras....
 for easy tracking of objects as the earth rotates. He ground and polished the mirror himself, using equipment he constructed.

In 1846 Lassell discovered Triton
Triton (moon)

'Triton' is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846 by William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a Retrograde and direct motion, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation....
, the largest moon
Natural satellite

A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called the primary. Technically, the term natural satellite could refer to a planet orbiting a star, or a dwarf galaxy orbiting a major galaxy, but it is normally synonymous with moon and used to identify non-artificial satellites...
 of Neptune, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself by German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle
Johann Gottfried Galle

Johann Gottfried Galle was a Germany astronomer at the Berlin Observatory who, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the Discovery of Neptune, and know what he was looking at ....
.






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William Lassell (June 18 1799 – October 5 1880) was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
  astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
.

Born in Bolton
Bolton

Bolton is a large town in Greater Manchester, in the North West England region of England.Situated close to the West Pennine Moors, north west of the city of Manchester, it is the largest and most populous settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, the former county borough of Bolton has a population of 139,403, though this figure d...
, he made his fortune as a beer brewer
Brewing

Brewing is the production of alcoholic beverages and alcohol fuel through fermentation . The term is used for the production of beer, although the word "brewing" is also used to describe the fermentation process used to create wine and mead....
, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
. He built an observatory near Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 with a reflector telescope
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
, for which he pioneered the use of an equatorial mount
Equatorial mount

An equatorial mount is a mount that has one rotational axis parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used with telescopes, satellite dishes, and cameras....
 for easy tracking of objects as the earth rotates. He ground and polished the mirror himself, using equipment he constructed.

In 1846 Lassell discovered Triton
Triton (moon)

'Triton' is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune, discovered on October 10, 1846 by William Lassell. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a Retrograde and direct motion, which is an orbit in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation....
, the largest moon
Natural satellite

A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called the primary. Technically, the term natural satellite could refer to a planet orbiting a star, or a dwarf galaxy orbiting a major galaxy, but it is normally synonymous with moon and used to identify non-artificial satellites...
 of Neptune, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself by German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle
Johann Gottfried Galle

Johann Gottfried Galle was a Germany astronomer at the Berlin Observatory who, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the Discovery of Neptune, and know what he was looking at ....
. In 1848 he independently co-discovered Hyperion
Hyperion (moon)

'Hyperion' is a natural satellite of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is distinguished by its irregular shape, its chaotic rotation, and its unexplained sponge-like appearance....
, a moon of Saturn. In 1851 he discovered Ariel
Ariel (moon)

Ariel is a natural satellite of Uranus discovered on 24 October 1851 by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Umbriel ....
 and Umbriel
Umbriel (moon)

Umbriel is a natural satellite of Uranus discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Ariel ....
, two new moons of Uranus.

When Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was from 20 June 1837 the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and from 1 May 1876 the first Empress of India of the British Raj until her death....
 visited Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 in 1851, Lassell was the only local she specifically requested to meet.

In 1855, he built a telescope, which he installed in Malta
Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
 because of the better observing conditions compared to England.

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society

The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Royal Astronomical Society....
 in 1849, and served as its president for two years starting in 1870.

Lassell died in Maidenhead
Maidenhead

Maidenhead is a town within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London....
 in 1880. Upon his death, he left a fortune of £80,000 (equivalent to millions of American dollars
United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
 by today's standards).

The crater Lassell
Lassell (lunar crater)

Lassell is a small moon Impact crater that is located in the eastern part of the Mare Nubium. It lies to the west of the crater Alpetragius , and southwest of Alphonsus ....
 on the Moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
, a crater
Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body....
 on Mars
MARS

In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
 and a ring of Neptune
Rings of Neptune

The Planetary ring of Neptune were discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and are tenuous, faint and Cosmic dust, and resemble the rings of Jupiter more closely than those of Rings of Saturn or Rings of Uranus....
 are named in his honour.

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