Tycho Brahe, A Man Defined by the Cosmos

Later in his life, while studying at the University of Leipzig, the young Brahe was able to view a conjunction, or crossing of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. He was amazed to find that the best books on astronomy had not predicted the event in any way. All the books of the day were terribly inaccurate, in Brahe's eyes. Tycho then decided that he wanted to spend his life making the most accurate charts and diagrams of the postions of the heavenly bodies and of the stars.

Brahe spent the next few years of his life building himself an observatory, finding a wife, and having his eight children. Throughout those years, he constantly kept his observations and charts. He settled on the Island of Ven, and built himself an observatory that he called Uraniborg.

Then on November 7, 1572, as Brahe watched the heavens, he saw a new star suddenly appear in the constellation Cassiopeia! It is known now as a supernova, but at the time, no astronomer could predict that the stars could magically appear. He observed the new star, and predicted that it lay outside the moon, so therefore it was a star, and not something in orbit of the Earth. To understand the impact that this new star had on the scientific community we must first examine the principles of Aristotle. He believed that the heavens were a tranquil and peaceful place of complete order and predictability and the heavens would never change. Scientists of the Renaissance believe Aristotle's philosophy about the heavens as much as people today believe that what goes up must come down. The appearance of a new star in the perfect and unchanging cosmos, along with the Copernican theory that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe, was alarming to the scientific community.

Brahe continued his charting of the stars with sizable support from Frederick II of Denmark and grew to be a very demanding man. He bought his own printing press and men to run the press, so his manuscripts could be published to perfection. He hired teams of men from Augusberg to create the most exacting instruments of his time. Brahe demanded exactness in his measurements and perfection in his instrumentation.

But when Frederick died and Brahe's financial support was cut off, Brahe left Uraniborg for the service of Emperor Rudolph II. He remained in his service, using the few instruments he could bring from Urnaniborg, until his death in 1601. At his death, he left all of his data and instrumentation to a young Johhanes Kepler, the man that would revolutionize the theory of the cosmos a few years later.

Source:
"Brahe, Tycho" Britannica Online.
http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/206/79.html
[Accessed 09 April 1998].

Addi Faerber 1998.