Astronomer, born in Bolton, Lancashire, NW England, UK. As an amateur, he built an observatory at Starfield near Liverpool, where he constructed and mounted equatorial reflecting telescopes. He discovered several planetary satellites, including Triton (1846) and Hyperion (1848). He was the first to ascertain clearly the composition of the Uranian system, and discovered Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus (1851).
He made his fortune as a beer brewer, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy.
In 1846 he discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
When Queen Victoria visited Liverpool in 1851, Lassell was the only local she specifically requested to meet.
In 1855, he built a 48-inch telescope, which he installed in Malta because of the better observing conditions (weather) compared to Britain.
Upon his death, he left a fortune of £80,000 (equivalent of millions of dollars by today's standards).
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1849, and served as its president for two years starting in 1870.
Lassell crater on the Moon, a crater on Mars and a ring of Neptune were named in his honour.
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