# Herschel's Fashionably Late Discovery: Uranus's Hidden Moons

# This is your Astronomy Tonight podcast.

**February 4th - A Date Written in the Stars**

Well, stargazers, settle in because today we're celebrating one of the most monumentally *awkward* moments in astronomical history—and I mean that in the best possible way!

On February 4th, 1789, William Herschel discovered **Uranus's first two moons: Titania and Oberon**. Now, here's where it gets deliciously ironic: Uranus itself had only been discovered just *eight years earlier* by Herschel in 1781—it was the first planet found in recorded history using a telescope. So there's Uranus, barely breaking into polite celestial society, still getting to know the neighborhood, when suddenly it's like, "Oh, by the way, I have *two large moons* you didn't notice." Talk about a fashionably late introduction!

What makes this even more spectacular is that Herschel found these moons using his hand-built 40-foot telescope—a contraption so enormous and temperamental that it made modern construction projects look simple. The man ground his own mirrors, engineered his own equipment, and somehow managed to spot two moons orbiting a planet over *1.7 billion miles away*.

These moons he named after characters from literature—Titania from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Oberon from the same play. Even Herschel's moon-naming got fancy!

If you've enjoyed this cosmic curiosity, **please subscribe to the Astronomy Tonight podcast**—we've got stories like this one every single night! And if you want even more information about tonight's skies and celestial events, head on over to **QuietPlease dot AI**.

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