William Lassell- Biography

                  William Lassell was born 1799 and past away in 1880. During his life he was a very important astronomer who made many important achievements in the advancement of celestial understandings. At the time astronomy was a hobby and you needed a financial base to be able to dabble into it. Lassell made his fortune in the beer brewing industry and was then able to study the night sky. He actually built his own observatory in Liverpool to conduct his observations.Specific achievements are involved with Saturn and Neptune.
                Lassell manufactured his very own telescope and it was a refracting telescope. The telescope was extremely heavy and was perfect for viewing the long term aspects of planetary motion. Following the creation of his own satellite he discovered many of Saturns satellites. He discovered Triton and Hyperion of Saturn and several of uranus including Ariel. Lassell also had studied into the planetary rings of Saturn and led to the better understandings of their existence. Lassell had major contributions in the telescope aspect of astronomy. Aside from making his own telescope, he had many advancements in his telescope design. Lassell made a steam powered telescope. Along with this he produced a 48 inch speculum mirror for his observations. This larger telescope was built in Malta because of the better prime observing location. Adding to his accomplishments he recieved the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1849. He then served as the society's president for two years (1870-1871).
               Following his death he was renowned forever as one of the most famous and important astronomers in planetary objects. He detailed many important things in Saturn, Urnaus, Jupiter and Neptune, involving their natural sattellites and ring systems. He innovated satellites and all in all was an innovative person in the field of astronomy. Neptune had a ring system named after him. The Lassell ring was one of the inner rings of Neptune named after him as he was an important person involved with its observations. The rings were named after astronomers who were involved with the early detailed observations of Neptune.