Understanding Shooting Stars

Not every star gazer is as lucky as Alexander Herschel. He came from a privileged family of astronomers. His father, John, invented a special calendar called the Julian Day system. Astronomers still use it today. His grandfather, William, is even more famous for discovering Uranus and his great-aunt, Caroline, was a comet hunter.

Alexander was a keen astronomer with a love of maths and physics. He designed a binocular spectroscope to study comets and meteors. A spectroscope takes light and splits it into different colours. Using his spectroscope, he was the first to discover sodium in meteor trails.

In 1871, he became the first professor of physics in Newcastle at the newly founded Durham College of Physical Science. Today, Newcastle University has become a centre for astronomy research.

The Herschel family was all about serious stargazing! William Herschel and his sister, Caroline, oversaw the epic four-year build of a massive 40 foot (12-metre) telescope. The glass mirror inside was colossal, requiring a whole year to grind and polish. William's son, John, dismantled it in 1840 due to safety concerns. 

Ready to dive deep into the mysteries of space? Newcastle University runs world-leading courses in Astrophysics. The Herschel Building is the epicentre of some serious space investigation. It is named after Alexander Herschel, the first professor of Physics at Newcastle University.

This sculpture, created in 1962 by Geoffrey Clarke, was commissioned by Sir Basil Spence to stand outside his Herschel Building for the Physics Department of the University of Newcastle.