Tycho Brahe

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Considered the greatest naked-eye astronomer, Tycho 'Tyge' Brahe (December 14, 1546 - October 24, 1601) was a Danish astronomer. He had Uraniborg built; which became an early "research institute". His detailed astronomical findings led many to question the Aristotelian notion of a perfect and unchanging universe and laid the groundwork for future scientific breakthroughs. For purposes of publication, Tycho owned a printing press and paper mill. His best known assistant was Johannes Kepler.

Brahe was the surviving member of a pair of twin boys. He was raised, however, by a wealthy, childless uncle and became his heir. His rank afforded him an excellent education and Brahe studied at the universities of Copenhagen and Leipzig, among others. Due to his uncle's desires Brahe entered school with the intention to prepare for a career in politics, but his own predilections led him to the field of astronomy. A discrepancy between the predicted and observed time of a partial eclipse of the sun perturbed Brahe, and he dedicated his life to making astronomy a more precise science in order to alleviate such inconsistencies. The death of his uncle in 1565 enabled him to spend more time traveling and exploring his interests. Brahe accumulated scientific instruments, began composing his own star charts, and dabbled in alchemy.

Tools

Tycho realized that progress in the science of astronomy could be achieved, not by occasional haphazard observations, but only by systematic and rigorous observation, night after night, and by using instruments of the highest accuracy obtainable. He was able to improve and enlarge the existing instruments, and construct entirely new ones. Brahe's naked-eye measurements, of planetary parallax, were accurate to the arcminute. These measurements, following Brahe's death, became the possessions of Kepler. His early tools were his eyes, compass and later a radius (a cross-staff). And as a student gear, it had errors he had to jury rig calculations to compensate for. Later on he'd have huge quadrant built for observation (both in Ausberg and Uraniborg).

The Duel

While a student, Tycho lost part of his nose in a duel. This occurred in 1566 while the 20-year-old Tycho was studying at the University of Rostock in Germany. Attending a dance at a professor's house, he quarrelled with one Manderup Parsbjerg, a fellow member of the Danish gentry. A subsequent duel (in the dark) resulted in Tycho losing the bridge of his nose. For the rest of his life, he wore a silver replacement (although, Tycho's tomb was reopened in 1901 and his remains were examined by medical experts. The nasal opening of the skull was rimmed with green, a sign of exposure to copper, not silver).

Then again, he may have lost his nose as part of a Mercury-based French Pox cure and used the "duel" to hide the truth. Many noses were lost to the mercury "cure" before a real solution was found.

Cassiopeia

Brahe returned to Denmark in 1570, where he lived with another uncle and set up his own observatory. From the homemade post, Brahe made a discovery that would make a profound impact on his life and on astronomy.

THE SUPERNOVA

On November 11, 1572 he observed what seemed to be a bright new star near Cassiopeia and studied it for the next 18 months. Brahe was surprised to find that the star seemed to be further away than the moon and that it intensified in brightness before eventually slowly fading out of view. The event was extremely significant because it would not have been possible if the Aristotelian conception of a harmonious and unchanging universe were correct. Since it had been maintained since Antiquity that the world of the fixed stars was eternal and unchangeable, other observers held that the phenomenon was something in the Earth's atmosphere. It did cause comparision with the historical account of a similar phenomena that occured circa 125 BCE.Tycho, however, observed that the parallax of the object did not change from night to night, suggesting that the object was far away. Tycho argued that a nearby object should appear to shift its position with respect to the background. He published a small book, De Stella Nova (1573), thereby coining the term nova for a "new" star. (We now know that Tycho's star was a supernova) - This discovery was decisive for his choice of astronomy as a profession.

Heliocentrism

Kepler tried, but was unable, to persuade Brahe to adopt the heliocentric model of the solar system. Tycho believed in a geocentric model for the same reasons that he argued that the supernova of 1572 was not near the Earth. He argued that if the Earth were in motion, then nearby stars should appear to shift their positions with respect to background stars. In fact, this effect of parallax does exist; it could not be observed with the naked eye, or even with the telescopes of the next two hundred years, because even the nearest stars are much more distant than most astronomers of the time believed possible.

Uraniborg, Stjerneborg and Benátky

King Frederick II. of Denmark and Norway, impressed with Tycho's 1572 observations, financed the construction of two observatories for Tycho on Hven (Ven). These were Uraniborg and Stjerneborg.

On May 23 1576, by royal decree the Danish King Frederick II granted Tycho the island of Hven, east of Copenhagen (now part of Sweden, but a Danish possession at the time), as well as an annual stipend to further Tycho's astronomical researches. Tycho took full advantage of his independence and financial security. He established on the island the Uraniborg Observatory. Throughout his career, and in particular at Uraniborg, Tycho proceeded to build astronomical measuring instruments of unprecedented accuracy, not to mention physical size.

A printing press was established on Hven, and build a second underground observatory with isolated observing stations to ensure reliably independent multiple astronomical measurements. Because he disagreed with Christian IV., the new king of his country, he moved to Prague in 1599. Sponsored by Rudolf II., the Holy Roman Emperor, he built a new observatory (in a castle in Benátky 50 kilometers away from Prague) and worked there until his death.

Miscellaneous

Tycho was the preeminent observational astronomer of the pre-telescopic period, and his observations of stellar and planetary positions achieved unparalleled accuracy for their time. After his death, his records of the motion of the planet Mars enabled Kepler to discover the laws of planetary motion, which provided powerful support for the Copernican heliocentric theory of the solar system. Tycho himself was not a Copernican, but proposed a compromise system in which the planets other than Earth orbited the Sun while the sun orbited the earth.

He was aware that a star observed near the horizon appears with a greater altitude than the real one, due to atmospheric refraction, and he worked out tables for the correction of this source of error. Thankfully, he ignored the errors of the Ancients, and the laziness of his contemporaries to build a vibrant study of Astronomy based on observation.

Tycho's Death

Brahe died in 1601, several days after his bladder burst during a banquet. It has been said that to leave the banquet, before it concluded, would be "the height" of bad manners.

**TYCHO & URANIBORG OBSERVATORY

A Color View**

Recent investigations suppose that Tycho did not die directly of his urinary problems, but may have poisoned himself unintentionally by administering some medicine containing mercury (he pursued alchemical studies as well throughout his life, however he seems either not to have kept records or to have destroyed them)

Using the growth rate of hair it was concluded that Tycho was poisoned by mercury one day before his death. It was not a burst bladder caused by his courteousness, but mercury in his own medicines that led to the uremia of which he died.[1]

Within a few years of his death, the castle and observatory he built on his beloved island Hven were destroyed.

Footnote and External Link

How Tycho Brahe Died