Tycho+Brahe

media type="file" key="ryan scherr tycho brahe.mp3"[|ryan scherr tycho brahe.mp3] http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/1995/lectures/tychob.html

> ·  Tycho's father had agreed with the uncle before Tycho was born that if Tycho was a boy, the uncle could adopt and raise him, but he changed his mind. > ·  Then, when a younger brother was born, the uncle kidnapped Tycho. > ·  The father threatened to murder the uncle, but eventually calmed down, since Tycho stood to inherit a large estate from the uncle. > ·  At age thirteen, Tycho entered the University of Copenhagen to study law and philosophy. > ·  Then, one day he saw a partial eclipse. This is what first interested him in astronomy. > ·  He was amazed, and believed that men should know the position of stars ahead of time. > http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/brahe.html > ·  In a duel with another student, in Wittenberg in 1566, Tycho lost part of his nose. > ·  In 1572 Tycho observed the new star in Cassiopeia and published a brief tract about it the following year. > · In 1574 he gave a course of lectures on astronomy at the University of Copenhagen. He was now convinced that the improvement of astronomy hinged on accurate observations. > http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/brahe.html > ·    A Danish nobleman, Tycho Brahe, made important contributions by devising the most precise instruments available before the invention of the telescope for observing the heavens. > ·    Brahe made his observations from Uraniborg, on an island in the sound between Denmark and Sweden called Hveen.  >  ·     The instruments of Brahe allowed him to determine more precisely than had been possible the detailed motions of the planets.  >  ·    In particular, Brahe compiled extensive data on the planet Mars, which would later prove crucial to Kepler in his formulation of the laws of planetary motion because it would be sufficiently precise to demonstrate that the orbit of Mars was not a circle but an ellipse.  Not for the only time in human thought, a great thinker formulated a pivotal question correctly, but then made the wrong choice of possible answers: Brahe did not believe that the stars could possibly be so far away and so concluded that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that Copernicus was wrong. 
 * He was born in 1546
 * He made the most precise observations that had yet been made by devising the best instruments available before the invention of the telescope.
 * His observations of planetary motion, particularly that of Mars, provided the crucial data for later astronomers like Kepler to construct our present model of the solar system.
 * He made observations of a supernova (literally: nova= "new star") in 1572 (we now know that a supernova is an exploding star, not a new star). This was a "star" that appeared suddenly where none had been seen before, and was visible for about 18 months before fading from view. Since this clearly represented a change in the sky, prevailing opinion held that the supernova was not really a star but some local phenomenon in the atmosphere (remember: the heavens were supposed to be unchanging in the Aristotelian view). Brahe's meticulous observations showed that the supernova did not change positions with respect to the other stars (no parallax). Therefore, it was a real star, not a local object. This was early evidence against the immutable nature of the heavens, although Brahe did not interpret the absence of parallax for stars correctly, as we discuss below.
 * Brahe made careful observations of a comet in 1577. By measuring the parallax for the comet, he was able to show that the comet was further away than the Moon. This contradicted the teachings of Aristotle, who had held that comets were atmospheric phenomena ("gases burning in the atmosphere" was a common explanation among Aristotelians). As for the case of the supernova, comets represented an obvious change in a celestial sphere that was supposed to be unchanging; furthermore, it was very difficult to ascribe uniform circular motion to a comet.
 * He made the best measurements that had yet been made in the search for stellar parallax. Upon finding no parallax for the stars, he (correctly) concluded that either
 * the earth was motionless at the center of the Universe, or
 * the stars were so far away that their parallax was too small to measure.
 * Brahe proposed a model of the Solar System that was intermediate between the Ptolemaic and Copernican models (it had the Earth at the center). It proved to be incorrect, but was the most widely accepted model of the Solar System for a time.
 *   Asimov, I (1964). //Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology//. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc..


 * In observing a close approach of Jupiter and Saturn in 1563, Tycho noticed that it came a month away from the time prredicted for it by the tables prepared under Alfonso X. Consequently he began to but instruments with which to make obervations for the preparation of new tables.


 * He died in 1601

**Script**

Tycho Brahe was born in 1546. Before Tycho was born, his father and his uncle had an

agreement. If Tycho was a boy his uncle would adopt and raise him, but when he was

born the father changed his mind and wouldn’t let the uncle take Tycho. Later, when

Tycho’s little brother was born, his uncle kidnapped him. Tycho’s dad threatened to kill

the uncle, but eventually calmed down. When Tycho was 13, he went to the University of

Copenhagen to study law and philosophy. One day Tycho saw a partial eclipse, which is

what first interested him in astronomy. He then believed that people should know where

stars are going to be beforehand. When Tycho was still a student, around 20 years old, he

got in a fight with one of his fellow students, and lost part of his nose. After three years at

the University of Copenhagen, he spent most of his time from 1562 to 1576 traveling in

Germany, studying at Universities and working with other scholars. In 1572 Tycho

discovered a supernova, which he then published a year later. In 1574, he gave lectures on

astronomy at his school, the University of Copenhagen, and firmly believed that the

improvement of astronomy was based on accurate observations. Two years later he made

an observatory in Basle, which he called Uraniborg, and, with the help of many assistants

and students, he developed many instruments that greatly helped him observe stars,

comets, and planets. This was before the invention of the telescope. His teachings

contradicted Aristotle's, who said that comets were gases burning in the atmosphere,

which was a common belief. Tycho proved that he was wrong when he discovered a

comet that was farther away than the moon. He then made the best measurements that had

been made in the search for stellar parallax (the apparent angular displacement of a

celestial body due to its being observed from the surface instead of from the center of the

earth). When he found that there was no parallax for the stars, he correctly concluded that either the earth

was motionless at the center of the universe, or that the stars were so far

away that their parallax was too small. Between those two choices, Tycho incorrectly

believed that the earth was the center of the universe, and believed that stars couldn’t be

so far away. He then proposed a model of the solar system with the earth at the center,

which, although wrong, was widely accepted for a long time. Tycho died in 1601, eleven

days after suddenly becoming very ill during a banquet. Most people believed that he had

strained his bladder. Tycho will go down in history for having the most accurate

astronomical observations of his time. That data was used by his assistant Johannes

Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion. No one before Tycho had attempted to

make so many redundant observations, and the mathematical tools to take advantage of

them had not yet been developed. As Brahe was dying, it was said that his last words

were, "Ne frustra vixisse videar!", which means, “Let me not seem to have lived in vain”.