William Herschel was most famous for discovering the planet Uranus in 1781 for which he was elected to the Royal Society, winning the award of King's Astronomer. He discovered moons of Saturn and Uranus, described all the visible heavens and discovered and catalogued many hundreds of nebulae and double stars. He first began his observations when he moved to the city of Bath in 1755, with telescopes he made himself. He was assisted in his recordings by his devoted sister Caroline.

The lace background to the images in this book refer to his musical career When he first moved to England he made a living as organist and teacher of music, eventually becoming organist and conductor in the City of Bath, occasions on which he was well known for taking particular pleasure in the fashionable and elaborate lace ruffles of the day.