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Uranus is the seventh of the major planets in the order of distance from the sun. It is commonly considered a telescopic planet; but one having good eyesight can easily see Uranus without artificial help, if he only knows exactly where to look for it, so as to distinguish it from the numerous small stars having the same appearance. Had any of the ancient astronomers made so thorough an examination of the sky from night to night as Dr. Gould did of the southern heavens after he founded the Cordoba Observatory, they would have upset the notion that there were only seven planets.

Uranus was discovered in 1782 by Sir William Herschel, who at first supposed it to be the nucleus of a comet. But its motion soon showed that this could not be the case, and before long the discoverer found that it was a new addition to the solar system. In gratitude to his royal benefactor, George III, he proposed to call the planet Georgium Sidus, a name which was continued in England for some seventy years. Some continental astronomers proposed that it should be called after its discoverer, and the name Herschel was often assigned to it. But by 1850 the name Uranus, originally proposed by Bode (author of the "Law"), and always used in Germany, became universal.