Tycho Brahe: 1546-1601
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Tycho Brahe is probably the most famous observational astronomer of the sixteenth-century, although is not always clear whether he is better remembered for the fact that his data provided the basis for the work of Jonannes Kepler or because of the more colorful aspects of his life and death. Born into the high nobility of his native Denmark in 1546, he was groomed by his family for a career at court, but from an early age showed greater interest in astronomy than law, the discipline of choice for aspiring royal administrators.
After three years at the University of Copenhagen, he
spent much of the period from 1562 to 1576 travelling in Germany,
studying at the Universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, and Rostock,
and working with other scholars in Basle, Augsburg, and Kassel. It
was in Rostock in 1566 that he lost part of his nose in a duel, and
subsequently wore a prosthesis. The appearance in 1572 of a "new star" (in fact a supernova) prompted Tycho's first publication, which was issued by a Copenhagen printer in 1573. |
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In 1574, he gave some lectures on astronomy at the
University of Copenhagen. Already he was of the opinion that the
world-system of Copernicus was mathematically superior to that of
Ptolemy, but physically absurd. In 1576, his permanent relocation to
Basle, which he considered the most suitable place for him to
continue his astronomical studies, was forestalled by King Frederick
II, who offered him in fief the island of Hven in the Danish Sound.
With generous royal support, Tycho constructed there a domicile and observatory which he called Uraniborg, and developed a range of instruments of remarkable size and precision which he used, with the aide of numerous assistants and students, to observe comets, stars, and planets. |
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