Artist Grace Weir, left, in the garden of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath with museum curator Bridget de Leon. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Artist Grace Weir, left, in the garden of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath with museum curator Bridget de Leon. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian Astronomy Milky Way at the dining table: Bath art show celebrates 18th-century brother and sister astronomers Exhibition opens in former home of William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, and his comet-spotting sibling Caroline
Prefer the Guardian on Google From the garden of their Georgian townhouse in Bath in the late 18th century, a brother and sister made a series of extraordinary astronomical discoveries.
A new art show in the house where the siblings – William and Caroline Herschel – worked and lived highlights their pioneering spirit and their domestic arrangements.
View image in fullscreen Detail of painting of William Herschel. The Irish artist Grace Weir , who created the exhibition in what is now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy , said she was deeply interested in the science that went on at the house, including the discovery of the planet Uranus, and fascinated that it took place in such a cosy environment.
“It is a home,” Weir said. “Science does not take place in a vacuum. They would have had conversations about their discoveries across the dining table.”
One of her artworks, On the Construction of Heavens, was inspired by William Herschel’s drawing of the Milky Way in 1785.
Weir has had a copy of the drawing embroidered on to an antique linen tablecloth, which is laid over the family dining table. “William and Caroline must have spoken about the shape of the Milky Way right here,” Weir said. “That would have been an unusual thing to talk about back then.”
View image in fullscreen ‘They would have had conversations about their discoveries across the dining table,’ says Weir. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian In the basement workshop, where William Herschel built his own telescopes, Weir has installed an LED digital counter that records the distance of Uranus from the Earth as it changes.
A key element of the show is to make sure Caroline Herschel gets her share of the credit for the pair’s advances in science.
View image in fullscreen Detail of a print of Caroline Herschel. William Herschel was a self-taught amateur astronomer who came to Bath from Germany in 1777. His sister followed, initially as a housekeeper.
She quickly became his assistant, recording his findings, helping him with calculations, keeping his telescopes in order but then made discoveries of her own, finding eight comets and becoming the first woman in England to be paid as an astronomer.
One of the most striking pieces Weir has created is a tribute to Caroline Herschel’s comet-spotting abilities. Called An Imperfect Account, it features a piece of meteorite and a piece of obsidian in the shape of one of Caroline’s worry beads.
Weir said: “William had to persuade her mother to let her come to Bath. He recognised her intelligence and once she got here, they were incredibly collaborative. They drove each other along, they understood each other.”
View image in fullscreen Weir’s artwork An Imperfect Account featuring a piece of meteorite and a piece of obsidian. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian The pieces created by Weir are scattered around the house, meaning the visitor has to look for them…