Lemonnier, and other astronomers in France and by Bode in Germany. Efforts were made to calculate its orbit, on the assumption that it actually was a cometary body. Orbits were calculated by Méchain, De Saron, Laplace, and others. These efforts were fruitless. On 8th May De Saron announced that the "comet" was much more distant from the Sun than had been supposed. Laplace independently reached a similar conclusion. Meanwhile, Lexell, the St. Petersburg mathematician, who happened to be in England when the discovery was made, informed the St. Petersburg Academy that the object discovered by the Bath musician was probably not a comet at all, but an exterior planet, revolving at twice the distance of Saturn, thus confirming Maskelyne's sagacious surmise. Later it transpired that the planet had been observed no fewer than seventeen times between 1690 and 1781 by able observers such as Flamsteed, Bradley, Lemonnier, and Meyer, all of whom failed to differentiate it from an ordinary star, either in regard to its appearance or its motion. Lemonnier, indeed, had the discovery almost within his grasp, for he observed the planet on four consecutive days in January, 1769, but his carelessness robbed him of the distinction of detecting a new celestial body.
No little excitement was aroused by Herschel's achievement. It was the first planetary discovery within the memory of man—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn having been known from prehistoric times. More wonderful still, the discovery had been made, not by the leading astronomers of the day, but by an unknown amateur. At one bound Herschel leaped from obscurity to fame. The Royal Society of London awarded him the Copley Medal in November, 1781, and elected him a Fellow in December, exempting him from payment of subscriptions, as a mark of esteem. The discovery had caused a stir in still higher circles, and on 10th May, 1782, Herschel was informed that the King—
