Caroline Herschel: 'the unquiet heart'

Caroline Herschel was famous in her own time as the discoverer of eight comets, but of even greater significance was the help she gave her brother William in his exploration of 'the construction of the heavens'. She acted as his amanuensis during night watches, wrote up neat copies of their observing records and prepared his papers for publication. She also compiled an index to John Flamsteed's Star Catalogue, which was published by the Royal Society at its own expense, and after William's death she reorganized his catalogues of nebulae so that his son John could revise his father's work. Yet Caroline's was a hard and largely loveless life, for which she found the recognition that came her way a scant consolation.