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Tycho Brahe
family, work and legacy
Tycho Brahe
2
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Ottesen Brahe
Born 14 December 1546
Knutstorp Castle, Scania, then Denmark, today Sweden
Died 24 October 1601 (aged 54)
Prague
Nationality Danish
Education Private
Occupation Nobleman, Astronomer
Spouse(s) Kirstine Barbara Jrgensdatter
Children 8
Parents Otte Brahe and Beate Bille
Monument of Tycho Brahe and
Johannes Kepler in Prague
Tycho Brahe, born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (14
December 1546 24 October 1601), was a Danish
nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive
astronomical and planetary observations. Coming from
Scania, then part of Denmark, now part of modern-day
Sweden, Brahe was well known in his lifetime as an
astronomer and alchemist.
The Latinized name "Tycho Brahe" is usually
pronounced /tako br/ or /brhi/ in English. The
original Danish name "Tyge Ottesen Brahe" is
pronounced in Modern Standard Danish as [ty
dsn b].
Tycho Brahe was granted an estate on the island of Hven and the funding to build the
Uraniborg, an early research institute, where he built large astronomical instruments and
took many careful measurements. After disagreements with the new king in 1597, he was
invited by the Czech king and Holy Roman emperor Rudolph II to Prague, where he became
Tycho Brahe
3
the official imperial astronomer. He built the new observatory at Bentky nad Jizerou. Here,
from 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler. Kepler would later
use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy.
As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of the
Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system into his own
model of the universe, the Tychonic system. He is generally referred to as "Tycho" rather
than by his surname "Brahe", as was common in Scandinavia at the time.
[1]
Tycho is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the
data was used by his assistant 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. He did what others before him were
unable or unwilling to do to catalogue the planets and stars with enough accuracy to
determine whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the
heavens.
Life
Early years
Tycho was born on a farm in Roseau under the name Tyge Ottesen Brahe (de Knudstrup),
adopting the Latinized form Tycho around age fifteen (sometimes written Tcho). The
incorrect form of his name, Tycho de Brahe, appeared only much later.
[2]
He was born at his family's ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle (Danish: Knudstrup borg;
Swedish: Knutstorps borg)
[3]
about eight kilometres north of Svalv in then Danish Scania,
now Swedish, to Otte Brahe and Beate Bille. His twin brother died before being baptized.
(Tycho wrote a Latin ode (Wittendorf 1994, p. 68) to his dead twin which was printed as his
first publication in 1572.) He also had two sisters, one older (Kirstine Brahe) and one
younger ( Sophia Brahe). Otte Brahe, Tycho's father, was a nobleman and an important
figure at the court of the Danish King. His mother, Beate Bille, also came from an important
family that had produced leading churchmen and politicians. Both parents are buried under
the floor of Kgerd Church, four kilometres east of Knutstorp. An epitaph, originally from
Knutstorp, but now on a plaque near the church door, shows the whole family, including
Tycho as a boy.
Tycho later wrote that when he was around two, his uncle, Danish nobleman Jrgen Brahe,
"... without the knowledge of my parents took me away with him while I was in my earliest
youth." Apparently this did not lead to any disputes nor did his parents attempt to get him
back. According to one source,
[4]
Tycho's parents had promised to hand over a boy child to
Jrgen and his wife, who were childless, but had not honoured this promise. Jrgen seems
to have taken matters into his own hands and took the child away to his own residence,
Tost(e)rup Castle. Jrgen Brahe inherited considerable wealth from his parents, which in
terms of the social structure of the time made him eminently eligible for the post of County
Sheriff, a royal appointment. He was successively County Sheriff to Tranekjr (1542-49),
Odensegaard (1549-52), Vordingborg Castle(1552-57) and finally (1555 until his death in
1565) to Queen Dorothea at Nykbing Castle on Falster
[5]
. It is hard to say exactly where
Tycho was educated in his childhood years, and Tycho himself provides no information on
this topic, but the sources quoted below agree that he took a Latin School education from
the age of six until he was twelve years old.
Tycho Brahe
4
On 19 April 1559, Tycho began his studies at the University of Copenhagen. There,
following the wishes of his uncle, he studied law but also studied a variety of other subjects
and became interested in astronomy. It was, however, the eclipse which occurred on 21
August 1560, particularly the fact that it had been predicted, that so impressed him that he
began to make his own studies of astronomy, helped by some of the professors. He
purchased an ephemeris and books such as Sacrobosco's Tractatus de Sphaera, Apianus's
Cosmographia seu descriptio totius orbis and Regiomontanus's De triangulis omnimodis.
I've studied all available charts of the planets and stars and none of them match
the others. There are just as many measurements and methods as there are
astronomers and all of them disagree. What's needed is a long term project with
the aim of mapping the heavens conducted from a single location over a period of
several years. Tycho Brahe, 1563 (age 17).
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. Tycho's
naked eye measurements of planetary parallax were unprecedented in their precision -
accurate to the arcminute, or 1/30 the width of the full moon. His sister Sophia assisted
Tycho in many of his measurements. These jealously guarded measurements were
"usurped" by Kepler following Tycho's death.
[6]
Tycho was the last major astronomer to
work without the aid of a telescope, soon to be turned skyward by Galileo.
Tycho's nose
While a student, Tycho lost part of his nose in a rapier duel
[7]
with Manderup Parsbjerg, a
fellow Danish nobleman.
[8]
This occurred in the Christmas season of 1566, after a fair
amount of drinking, while Tycho, just turned 20 years old, was studying at the University of
Rostock in Germany.
[8]
Attending a dance at a professor's house, he quarreled with
Parsbjerg. A subsequent duel (in the dark) resulted in Tycho losing the bridge of his nose.
From this event Tycho became interested in medicine and alchemy.
[7]
For the rest of his
life, he was said to have worn a realistic replacement made of silver and gold
[7]
, using a
paste to keep it attached.
[8]
Some people, such as Fredric Ihren and Cecil Adams have
suggested that the false nose also had copper. Ihren wrote that when Tycho's tomb was
opened in 24 June 1901 green marks were found on his skull, suggesting copper.
[8]
Cecil
Adams also mentions a green colouring and that medical experts examined the remains.
[9]
Some historians have speculated that he wore a number of different prosthetics for
different occasions, noting that a copper nose would have been more comfortable and less
heavy than a precious metal one.
[10]
Death of his uncle
His uncle and foster father, Jrgen Brahe, died in 1565 of pneumonia after rescuing
Frederick II of Denmark from drowning. In April 1567, Tycho returned home from his
travels and his father wanted him to take up law, but Tycho was allowed to make trips to
Rostock, then on to Augsburg (where he built a great quadrant), Basel, and Freiburg. At the
end of 1570 he was informed about his father's ill health, so he returned to Knudstrup,
where his father died on 9 May 1571. Soon after, his other uncle, Steen Bille, helped him
build an observatory and alchemical laboratory at Herrevad Abbey.
[7]
Tycho Brahe
5
Family life
In 1572, in Knudstrup, Tycho fell in love with Kirsten, daughter of Jrgen Hansen, the
Lutheran priest in Knudstrup. She was a commoner, and Tycho never formally married her.
However, under Danish law, when a nobleman and a common woman lived together openly
as husband and wife, and she wore the keys to the household at her belt like any true wife,
their alliance became a binding morganatic marriage after three years. The husband
retained his noble status and privileges; the wife remained a commoner. Their children
were legitimate in the eyes of the law, but they were commoners like their mother and
could not inherit their father's name, coat of arms, or landholdings. (Skautrup 1941, pp.
24-5)
Kirsten Jrgensdatter gave birth to their first daughter, Kirstine (named after Tycho's late
sister, who died at 13) on 12 October 1573. Together they had eight children, six of whom
lived to adulthood. In 1574, they moved to Copenhagen where their daughter Magdalene
was born. Kirsten and Tycho lived together for almost thirty years until Tycho's death.
Tycho's elk and dwarf
Tycho was said to own one percent of the entire wealth of Denmark at one point in the
1580s and he often held large social gatherings in his castle. He kept a dwarf named Jepp
(whom Tycho believed to be clairvoyant) as a court jester who sat under the table during
dinner. Pierre Gassendi wrote
[8]
from a translation from Gassendi
that Tycho also had a tame elk, and that his mentor the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel
(Hesse-Cassel) asked whether there was an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied,
writing that there was none, but he could send his tame elk. When Wilhelm replied he
would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the elk had
just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at Landskrona. Apparently during dinner
[11]
the
elk had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down the stairs, and died.
[12]

[8]
Death
Tycho Brahe's grave in Prague, new
tomb stone from 1901
Tycho died on 24 October 1601 in Prague, eleven days
after suddenly becoming very ill during a banquet.
Toward the end of his illness he is said to have told
Kepler "Ne frustra vixisse videar!", "Let me not seem to
have lived in vain.
[13]

[14]
For hundreds of years, the
general belief was that he had strained his bladder. It
had been said that to leave the banquet before it
concluded would be the height of bad manners, and so
he remained, and that his bladder, stretched to its limit,
developed an infection which later killed him. This
theory was supported by Kepler's first-hand account.
Recent investigations have suggested that Tycho did not die from urinary problems but
instead from mercury poisoning: extremely toxic levels of it have been found in his hair and
hair-roots. Tycho may have poisoned himself by imbibing some medicine containing
unintentional mercuric chloride impurities, or may have been poisoned.
[15]
Tycho Brahe
6
One theory proposed in a 2005 book by Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder, suggests that
there is circumstantial evidence that Kepler murdered Brahe; they argue that Kepler had
the means, motive, and opportunity, and stole Tycho's data on his death.
[16]
According to
the Gilders, they find it "unlikely"
[16]
Tycho could have poisoned himself since he was an
alchemist known to be familiar with the toxicity of different mercury compounds.
Another theory is proposed by Peter Andersen, professor of German Studies at the
University of Strasbourg. Andersen discovered the 600-page diary of Count Erik Brahe, a
distant Swedish cousin of Tycho. He suggests Erik murdered Tycho, by order of King
Christian IV of Denmark, who suspected that Tycho had had an affair with his mother
Sophie.
[17]
In 2009, a group of conservators, chemists and physicians plan to open the vault
and perform a forensic analysis on the body.
[17]
Tycho Brahe's body is currently interred in a tomb in the Church of Our Lady in front of
Tn, in Old Town Square near the Prague Astronomical Clock.
Career: observing the heavens
The 1572 supernova
The Calar Alto Observatory imaged
Tycho's Supernova Remnant more than
four centuries after its discovery
On 11 November 1572, Tycho observed (from Herrevad
Abbey) a very bright star, now named SN 1572,
which had unexpectedly appeared in the constellation
Cassiopeia. Because it had been maintained since
antiquity that the world beyond the Moon's orbit was
eternally unchangeable (celestial immutability was a
fundamental axiom of the Aristotelian world-view),
other observers held that the phenomenon was
something in the terrestrial sphere below the Moon.
However, in the first instance Tycho observed that the
object showed no daily parallax against the background
of the fixed stars. This implied it was at least farther
away than the Moon and those planets that do show
such parallax. Moreover he also found the object did
not even change its position relative to the fixed stars
over several months as all planets did in their periodic orbital motions, even the outer
planets for which no daily parallax was detectable. This suggested it was not even a planet,
but a fixed star in the stellar sphere beyond all the planets. In 1573 he published a small
book, De nova stella
[18]
thereby coining the term nova for a "new" star (we now classify this
star as a supernova and we know that it is 7500 light-years from Earth). This discovery was
decisive for his choice of astronomy as a profession. Tycho was strongly critical of those
who dismissed the implications of the astronomical appearance, writing in the preface to De
nova stella: "O crassa ingenia. O caecos coeli spectatores" ("Oh thick wits. Oh blind
watchers of the sky").
Tycho's discovery was the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "Al Aaraaf."
[19]
In 1998,
Sky & Telescope magazine published an article by Donald W. Olson, Marilynn S. Olson and
Russell L. Doescher arguing, in part, that Tycho's supernova was also the same "star that's
westward from the pole" in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Tycho Brahe
7
Tycho's observatories
Watercolor plan of Uraniborg
Tycho published the 1572 observations made from his
first observatory at Herrevad Abbey in 1574. He then
started lecturing on astronomy, but gave up and left
Denmark in spring 1575 to tour abroad. He first visited
William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel's observatory at
Kassel, then went on to Frankfurt, Basel and Venice.
Upon his return he had decided to relocate to Basel, but
King Frederick II, King of Denmark and Norway, fearful
of losing such a scientist, offered Tycho the island of
Hven in Oresund with funding to set up an observatory.
Tycho first built Uraniborg in 1576 (with a laboratory
for his alchemical experiments in its cellar) and then
Stjerneborg in 1581.
[7]
When King Frederick II died in 1588 he was buried at Roskilde Cathedral, like other Danish
monarchs, and his 11 year old son Christian IV, became the new king. Tycho's influence
steadily declined and after several unpleasant disagreements, including neglecting to
maintain the chapel where Christian's father was buried,
[7]
he left Hven in 1597 and moved
to Prague in 1599. Sponsored by Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, he built a new
observatory in a castle in Bentky nad Jizerou, 50km from Prague, and he worked there for
one year. The emperor then had him move back to Prague, where he stayed until his death.
Besides the emperor himself, he was also financially supported by several nobles, including
Oldrich Desiderius Pruskowsky von Pruskow, to whom he dedicated his famous volume, the
"Mechanica."
In return for their support, Tycho's duties included preparing astrological charts and
predictions for his patrons on events such as births, weather forecasting, and providing
astrological interpretations of significant astronomical events such as the comet of 1577
and the supernova of 1572.
[20]
Tycho Brahe
8
Tycho's observational astronomy
Mural quadrant (Tycho Brahe 1598)
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. His planetary observations were
"consistently accurate to within about 1',"
[21]
the stellar
observations as recorded in his observational logs were
even more accurate, varying from 32.3" to 48.8" for
different instruments,
[22]
although an error of as much
as 3' was introduced into some of the stellar positions
Tycho published in his star catalog due to his
application of an erroneous ancient value of parallax
and his neglect of refraction.
[23]
For example, Tycho
measured Earth's axial tilt as 23 degrees and 31.5
minutes, which he claimed to be more accurate than
Copernicus by 3.5 minutes. 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 system in which the Sun orbited the
Earth while the other planets orbited the Sun. His system provided a safe position for
astronomers who were dissatisfied with older models but were reluctant to accept the
Earth's motion. It gained a considerable following after 1616 when Rome decided officially
that the heliocentric model was contrary to both philosophy and Scripture, and could be
discussed only as a computational convenience that had no connection to fact. His system
also offered a major innovation: while both the geocentric model and the heliocentric model
as set forth by Copernicus relied on the idea of transparent rotating crystalline spheres to
carry the planets in their orbits, Tycho eliminated the spheres entirely.
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.
To perform the huge number of multiplications needed to produce much of his astronomical
data, Tycho relied heavily on the then-new technique of prosthaphaeresis, an algorithm for
approximating products based on trigonometric identities that predated logarithms.
Tycho Brahe
9
Tycho's Geo- heliocentric Astronomy
In this depiction of the Tychonic
system, the objects on blue orbits (the
moon and the sun) revolve around the
earth. The objects on orange orbits
(Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn) revolve around the sun.
Around all is sphere of fixed stars.
Kepler tried, but was unable, to persuade Tycho to
adopt the heliocentric model of the solar system. Tycho
believed in geocentrism because he held the Earth was
just too sluggish to be continually in motion and also
believed that if the Earth orbited the Sun annually
there should be an observable stellar parallax over any
period of six months, during which the angular
orientation of a given star would change. This parallax
does exist, but is so small it was not detected until the
1830s, when Friedrich Bessel discovered a stellar
parallax of 0.314 arcseconds of the star 61 Cygni in
1838.
[24]
Tycho advocated an alternative to the
Ptolemaic geocentric system, a geo-heliocentric system
now known as the Tychonic system. In such a system,
first proposed by Heraclides in the 4th century BC, the
Sun annually circles a central Earth (regarded as
essentially different from the planets), while the five
planets orbit the Sun.
[25]
In Tycho's model the Earth
does not rotate daily, as Heraclides claimed, but is static.
Another crucial difference between Tycho's 1587 geo-heliocentric model and those of other
geo-heliocentric astronomers, such as Paul Wittich, Reimarus Ursus, Roslin and Origanus,
was that the orbits of Mars and the Sun intersected.
[26]
This was because Tycho had come
to believe the distance of Mars from the Earth at opposition (that is, when Mars is on the
opposite side of the sky from the Sun) was less than that of the Sun from the Earth. Tycho
believed this because he came to believe Mars had a greater daily parallax than the Sun.
But in 1584 in a letter to a fellow astronomer, Brucaeus, he had claimed that Mars had
been further than the Sun at the opposition of 1582, because he had observed that Mars
had little or no daily parallax. He said he had therefore rejected Copernicus's model
because it predicted Mars would be at only two-thirds the distance of the Sun.
[27]
But he
apparently later changed his mind to the opinion that Mars at opposition was indeed nearer
the Earth than the Sun was, but apparently without any valid observational evidence in any
discernible Martian parallax.
[28]
Such intersecting Martian and solar orbits meant that
there could be no solid rotating celestial spheres, because they could not possibly
interpenetrate. Arguably this conclusion was independently supported by the conclusion
that the comet of 1577 was superlunary, because it showed less daily parallax than the
Moon and thus must pass through any celestial spheres in its transit.
Tychonic astronomy after Tycho
Galileo's 1610 telescopic discovery that Venus shows a full set of phases refuted the pure
geocentric Ptolemaic model. After that it seems 17th century astronomy then mostly
converted to geo-heliocentric planetary models that could explain these phases just as well
as the heliocentric model could, but without the latter's disadvantage of the failure to
detect any annual stellar parallax that Tycho and others regarded as refuting it.
[29]
The
three main geo-heliocentric models were the Tychonic, the Capellan with just Mercury and
Venus orbiting the Sun such as favoured by Francis Bacon, for example, and the extended
Tycho Brahe
10
Capellan model of Riccioli with Mars also orbiting the sun whilst Saturn and Jupiter orbit
the fixed Earth. But the Tychonic model was probably the most popular, albeit probably in
what was known as 'the semi-Tychonic' version with a daily rotating Earth. This model was
advocated by Tycho's ex-assistant and disciple Longomontanus in his 1622 Astronomia
Danica that was the intended completion of Tycho's planetary model with his observational
data, and which was regarded as the canonical statement of the complete Tychonic
planetary system.
A conversion of astronomers to geo-rotational geo-heliocentric models with a daily rotating
Earth such as that of Longomontanus may have been precipitated by Francesco Sizzi's 1613
discovery of annually periodic seasonal variations of sunspot trajectories across the sun's
disc. They appear to oscillate above and below its apparent equator over the course of the
four seasons. This seasonal variation is explained much better by the hypothesis of a daily
rotating Earth together with that of the sun's axis being tilted throughout its supposed
annual orbit than by that of a daily orbiting sun, if not even refuting the latter hypothesis
because it predicts a daily vertical oscillation of a sunspot's position, contrary to
observation. This discovery and its import for heliocentrism, but not for geo-heliocentrism,
is discussed in the Third Day of Galileo's 1632 Dialogo.
[30]
However, prior to that
discovery, in the late 16th century the geo-heliocentric models of Ursus and Roslin had
featured a daily rotating Earth, unlike Tycho's geo-static model, as indeed had that of
Heraclides in antiquity, for whatever reason.
The fact that Longomontanus's book was republished in two later editions in 1640 and 1663
no doubt reflected the popularity of Tychonic astronomy in the 17th century. Its adherents
included John Donne and the atomist and astronomer Pierre Gassendi.
Johannes Kepler published the
Rudolphine Tables containing a star
catalog and planetary tables using
Tycho's measurements. Hven island
appears west uppermost on the base.
The ardent anti-heliocentric French astronomer
Jean-Baptiste Morin devised a Tychonic planetary
model with elliptical orbits published in 1650 in a
Tychonic simplified version of the Rudolphine
Tables.
[31]
The tenacious longevity of the Tychonic
model into the late 17th century and even the early
18th century was attested by Ignace Pardies who
declared in 1691 that it was still the commonly
accepted system and by Francesco Blanchinus who said
it was still such in 1728.
[32]
Indeed in possible support of this latter claim, it is
especially notable that even the 1726 third edition of
Newton's Principia was studiously no more than
Tychonic geo-heliocentric in its declared six established astronomical phenomena in the
preliminary 'Phenomena' section of Book 3, from which it sought to demonstrate its theory
of universal mutual gravitational attraction. For example, Phenomenon 3 stated "The orbits
of the five primary planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn encircle the sun.",
thus notably excluding the Earth from primary planethood in agreement with Tycho's
model.
[33]
But in fact even Newton's empirical reasoning for going beyond the extent of the
partial degree of heliocentrism of the Capellan model to the Tychonic with Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn also orbiting the Sun was strikingly invalid:
"Because Mars also shows a full face when near conjunction with the sun, and appears
gibbous in the quadratures, it is certain that Mars goes around the sun. The same is
Tycho Brahe
11
proved also with respect to Jupiter and Saturn from their phases being always
full;..."
[34]
But of course these phenomena of these three outer planets are equally well explained by
the Ptolemaic geocentric model.
It seems it was James Bradley's 1729 publication of his discovery of stellar aberration, three
years after the Principia's third edition and two after Newton's death, that finally put paid
to all forms of geocentrism. For this annual oscillation of stars was only satisfactorily
explicable by the conjunction of the heliocentric hypothesis that the Earth annually orbited
the Sun with that of the finite speed of light. The discovery of this novel phenomenon thus
completed the heliocentric revolution with the complete conversion from all
geo-heliocentrism to pure heliocentrism thereafter as now empirically established fact.
Legacy
Although Tycho's planetary model became discredited, his astronomical observations are
considered an essential contribution to the Scientific Revolution. A traditional view of
Tycho, originating in the 1654 biography Tychonis Brahe, equitis Dani, astronomorum
coryphaei, vita by Pierre Gassendi and furthered by the 1890 biography by Johann Dreyer,
which for a long time was considered the most essential work on Tycho, is that Tycho was
primarily an empiricist, who set new standards for precise and objective measurements.
[35]
According to historian of science Helge Kragh, the origin of this view is Gassendi's
opposition to Aristotelianism and Cartesianism and it fails to account for the diversity of
Tycho's activities.
[35]
Tycho considered astrology a subject of great importance,
[36]
and he was in his own time
also famous for his contributions to medicine and his herbal medicines were in use as late
as the 1900s.
[37]
Although the research community Tycho created in Uraniborg did not
survive him, while it existed it fulfilled the roles of being both a research center and an
important center of education, functioning as a graduate school for Danish as well as
foreign students of both astronomy and medicine.
[37]
Tycho manoeuvred confidently within
the political world and his success as a scientist relied on his political skills to ensure
funding for his work.
The crater Tycho on the Moon is named after him, as is the crater Tycho Brahe on Mars.
Tycho Brahe
12
References
Opera omnia
Brahe, Tycho. Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia (in
Latin). Vol 1-15. 1913-1929. Edited by J. L. E. Dreyer.
Kragh, Helge (2005) (in Danish). Fra
Middelalderlrdom til Den Nye Videnskab. Dansk
Naturvidenskabs Historie. 1. Aarhus: Aarhus
Universitetsforlag. ISBN 87-7934-168-3.
Skautrup, Peter, 1941 Den jyske lov: Text med
oversattelse og ordbog. Aarhus: Universitets-forlag.
Wittendorff, Alex. 1994. Tyge Brahe. Copenhagen: G.
E. C. Gad.
"Strange Cases from the Files of Astronomical
Sociology"
[38]
. University of Notre Dame. http:/ /
www. nd. edu/ ~kkrisciu/ strange/ strange. html.
Retrieved on 31 March 2005.
Olson, Donald W.; Olson, Marilynn S.; Doescher,
Russell L., "The Stars of Hamlet," Sky & Telescope
(November 1998)
R. Cowen (18 December 1999). "Danish astronomer argues for a changing cosmos
[39]
".
Science News 156 (25 & 26). http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20050828123855/ http:/ /
sciencenews. org/ pages/ sn_arc99/ 12_18_99b/ fob6. htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
Brahe, Tycho. 'Astronomi instaurat mechanica', 1598
[40]
European Digital Library
Treasure
J.L.E. Dreyer "Tycho Brahe" 1890
Further reading
John Robert Christianson: On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe, science, and culture in the
sixteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-521-65081-X
Victor E. Thoren: The Lord of Uraniborg: a biography of Tycho Brahe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990 ISBN 0-521-35158-8
Kitty Ferguson: The nobleman and his housedog: Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler: the
strange partnership that revolutionised science. London: Review, 2002 ISBN
0-7472-7022-8 (published in the US as: Tycho & Kepler: the unlikely partnership that
forever changed our understanding of the heavens. New York: Walker, 2002 ISBN
0-8027-1390-4)
Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder Heavenly intrigue. New York: Doubleday, 2004 ISBN
0-385-50844-1
Arthur Koestler: The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe.
Hutchinson, 1959; reprinted in Arkana, 1989
Godfred Hartmann: Urania. Om mennesket Tyge Brahe. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1989
ISBN 87-00-62763-1
Wilson & Taton Planetary astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics
1989 CUP (articles by Thoren, Jarell and Schofield on the nature and history of the
Tychonic astronomical model)
Tycho Brahe
13
External links
Brahe, Tycho
[41]
MacTutor History of Mathematics
Tycho Brahe
[42]
pages by Adam Mosley at Starry Messenger: An Electronic History of
Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition
[43]
- Full digital facsimile, Lehigh
University.
Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition
[44]
- Full digital facsimile,
Smithsonian Institution.
Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1598 edition
[45]
- Full digital facsimile, the Danish
Royal Library. Includes Danish and English translations.
Electronic facsimile editions of the rare book collection at the Vienna Institute of
Astronomy
[46]
Brahe Bio
[47]
at Skyscript
The Galileo Project
[48]
article on Tycho Brahe
The Observations of Tycho Brahe
[49]
Tycho's 1004-Star Catalog: The First Critical Edition
[50]
, edited and analyzed
astronomically and statistically by Dennis Rawlins.
External links
[1] E. Atlee Jackson (2001). Exploring Nature's Dynamics (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=8UD-pXH1kDYC& pg=PA12& dq=referred-to-as-tycho& lr=& as_brr=0&
as_pt=ALLTYPES& ei=yHNESdXRHJHQMujrkcEN). Wiley-IEEE. ISBN 9780471191469.
http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=8UD-pXH1kDYC& pg=PA12&
dq=referred-to-as-tycho& lr=& as_brr=0& as_pt=ALLTYPES& ei=yHNESdXRHJHQMujrkcEN.
[2] Alena olcov: From Tycho Brahe to incorrect Tycho de Brahe..., Acta Universitatis
Carolinae, Mathematica et Physica 46, Supplementum, Carolinum, Prague 2005, p.
2936.
[3] Dansk biografisk Lexikon / II. Bind. Beccau - Brandis (http:/ / runeberg. org/ dbl/ 2/
0608. html) (Danish)
[4] Godfred Hartmann (1989), Urania. Om mennesket Tyge Brahe (Urania. About Tyge
Brahe, the Man)., Copenhagen: Gyldendal, ISBN 87-00-62763-1
[5] Dansk Biografisk Lexikon (Danish Biographical Lexicon). Copenhagen. Gyldendalske
Boghandels Forlag, 1887-1905.
[6] Stephen Hawking (2004). The Illustrated On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works
of Physics and Astronomy (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iNLqkbDGmiQC&
pg=PA108& ots=KLcJ5zhIsa& dq=tycho+"quickly+took+advantage+of+the+
absence"& as_brr=3& sig=3_FJFfbz8MbgLAJkh474uKNPcBg). Running Press. ISBN
0762418982. http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iNLqkbDGmiQC& pg=PA108&
ots=KLcJ5zhIsa& dq=tycho+%22quickly+took+advantage+of+the+absence%22&
as_brr=3& sig=3_FJFfbz8MbgLAJkh474uKNPcBg.
[7] J J O'Connor and E F Robertson. Brahe biography (http:/ / www-history. mcs.
st-andrews. ac. uk/ Biographies/ Brahe. html). April 2003. Retrieved 2008-09-28
[8] Fredric Ihren. "Tycho Brahe's Nose And The Story Of His Pet Moose" (http:/ / www.
nada. kth. se/ ~fred/ tycho/ nose. html). www.nada.kth.se. http:/ / www. nada. kth. se/
~fred/ tycho/ nose. html. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
Tycho Brahe
14
[9] Cecil Adams. Did astronomer Tycho Brahe really have a silver nose? (http:/ / www.
straightdope. com/ columns/ read/ 1270/
did-astronomer-tycho-brahe-really-have-a-silver-nose). 1998-07-17. Retrieved 2008-10-06
[10] Henderson, Mark. "Tycho Brahes beloved pet was a drunken moose" (http:/ / www.
timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ news/ uk/ science/ article5282597. ece). Times of London. http:/ /
www. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ news/ uk/ science/ article5282597. ece. Retrieved on
2008-12-04.
[11] Ihren, from a translation
[12] J. L. E. Dreyer (1890). Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the
Sixteenth Century. Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh. unknown ISBN.. Page 210 of
online version published 2004 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ywaut_U5q00C&
printsec=frontcover#PPA201,M1) covers the elk.
[13] Pierre Gassendi, "Tycho Brahe", 1654
[14] David L. Goodstein and Judith R. Goodstein (1999). Feynman's Lost Lecture: The
Motion of Planets Around the Sun (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ysZI5NcksUcC&
pg=PA28& ots=NJU2NTP1jT& dq="let+me+not+seem+to+have+lived+in+vain"+
Kepler& sig=0uK8JpIYDdfzefBUQCB1J8M22fo). W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0393039188.
http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ysZI5NcksUcC& pg=PA28& ots=NJU2NTP1jT&
dq=%22let+me+not+seem+to+have+lived+in+vain%22+Kepler&
sig=0uK8JpIYDdfzefBUQCB1J8M22fo.
[15] tychobrahe.com English (http:/ / www. tychobrahe. com/ eng_tychobrahe/ myt. html)
[16] Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder (2005). Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho
Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries. Anchor.
ISBN 978-1-4000-3176-4.
[17] Was Tycho Braher Murdered? (http:/ / www. spiegel. de/ international/ europe/
0,1518,601729,00. html)
[18] De stella Nova (http:/ / www. texts. dnlb. dk/ DeNovaStella/ Index. html) Photocopy of
the Latin print with a partial translation into Danish: "Om den nye og aldrig siden
Verdens begyndelse i nogen tidsalders erindring fr observerede stjerne..."
[19] Hallqvist, Christoffer (7 February 2006), Al Aaraaf and West Point (http:/ / www.
poedecoder. com/ qrisse/ bio/ westpoint. php), Qrisse's Edgar Allan Poe Pages, http:/ /
www. poedecoder. com/ qrisse/ bio/ westpoint. php
[20] Adam Mosley and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the
University of Cambridge. Tycho Brahe and Astrology (http:/ / www. hps. cam. ac. uk/
starry/ tychoastrol. html). 1999. Retrieved 2008-10-02
[21] Owen Gingerich and James R. Voelkel, "Tycho Brahe's Copernican Campaign," (http:/
/ adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1998JHA. . . . 29. . . . 1G) Journal for the History of
Astronomy, 29(1998): 2-34, p. 30, n. 2.
[22] Walter G. Wesley, "The Accuracy of Tycho Brahe's Instruments," (http:/ / adsabs.
harvard. edu/ abs/ 1978JHA. . . . . 9. . . 42W) Journal for the History of Astronomy,
9(1978): 42-53, table 4.
[23] Dennis Rawlins, "Tycho's 1004 Star Catalog", DIO 3 (http:/ / www. dioi. org/ vols/ w30.
pdf) (1993), p. 20, n. 70.
[24] J J O'Connor and E F Robertson. Bessel biography (http:/ / www-history. mcs.
st-andrews. ac. uk/ Biographies/ Bessel. html). University of St Andrews. Retrieved
2008-09-28
Tycho Brahe
15
[25] See the three articles by Thoren, Jarell and Schofield in Wilson & Taton 'Planetary
astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics' 1989 CUP for details
[26] Ibid
[27] See p178-80 of Dreyer's 1890 'Tycho Brahe'
[28] See p171 The Wittich Connection Gingerich and Westman 1988
[29] Taton & Wilson 1989
[30] See p345-56 of Stillman Drake's 1967 Dialogue concerning the two chief world
systems. But see Drake's Sunspots, Sizzi and Scheiner' in his 1970 Galileo Studies for its
critical discussion of Galileo's misleading presentation of this phenomenon.
[31] See pp.42, 50 & 166 of Taton & Wilson's 1989 The General History of Astronomy 2A.
[32] See p41 of Christine Schofield's article The Tychonic and Semi-Tychonic World
Systems in Taton & Wilson (eds) 1989 'The General History of Astronomy Volume 2A'
[33]
This interesting fact was apparently first pointed out in the 20th century by the philosopher
of science Imre Lakatos in his Newton's effect on scientific standards posthumously
published in his 1978 Philosophical Papers Volume 1. In addition to the many logical
reasons that have been adduced by such as Duhem, Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos and
others, such as Leibniz and Roger Cotes, to show that Newton did not validly deduce his
law of gravity from Kepler's three laws of planetary orbits, this fact also further scuppers
the inductivist-positivist claim that he did, since Kepler's laws were heliocentric. Of course
in the General Scholium added to its 1713 second edition Newton did endorse
heliocentrism in stating "The six primary planets revolve about the sun in circles concentric
with the sun..." (p940 Cohen & Whitman Principia) But the Principia never gave any proof
that the Earth orbited the sun, not even an invalid one such as were his Phenomenon 3
proofs that Mars, Jupiter and Saturn did.
[34] p799 Principia Cohen & Whitman 1999
[35] Kragh, pp. 22022
[36] See e.g. Kragh, pp. 23441.
[37] Kragh, p. 243.
[38] http:/ / www. nd. edu/ ~kkrisciu/ strange/ strange. html
[39] http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20050828123855/ http:/ / sciencenews. org/ pages/
sn_arc99/ 12_18_99b/ fob6. htm
[40] http:/ / www. theeuropeanlibrary. org/ portal/ libraries/ Libraries. php?launch=1&
language=en& page=Treasures& country=Denmark
[41] http:/ / turnbull. dcs. st-and. ac. uk/ ~history/ Mathematicians/ Brahe. html
[42] http:/ / www. hps. cam. ac. uk/ starry/ tycho. html
[43] http:/ / digital. lib. lehigh. edu/ planets/ brahe. php?num=F& exp=false& lang=lat&
CISOPTR=404& limit=brahe& view=full
[44] http:/ / www. sil. si. edu/ DigitalCollections/ HST/ Brahe/ brahe. htm
[45] http:/ / www. kb. dk/ elib/ lit/ dan/ brahe/ index-en. htm
[46] http:/ / www. univie. ac. at/ hwastro
[47] http:/ / www. skyscript. co. uk/ brahe. html
[48] http:/ / galileo. rice. edu/ sci/ brahe. html
[49] http:/ / csep10. phys. utk. edu/ astr161/ lect/ history/ brahe. html
[50] http:/ / www. dioi. org/ vols/ w30. pdf
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=274384628
Tycho Brahe
16
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WingedSkiCap, X!, thelwold, 389 anonymous edits
Brahe
17
Family
Brahe
The original arms of
Brahe family
Brahe may also refer to the German name of the Brda river in
Poland.
Brahe (originally Bragde) is the name of a Scanian noble family that
was influential in both Danish and Swedish history but has its family
roots in Swedish origin. The first member of the family is speculated to
have been Verner Braghde from Halland.
[1]
Better documented is
Peder Braghe to Gyllebo who appears in late 14th century records. He
fathered two sons, Axel and Thorkild. What later became the Danish
branch descended from Axel and what later became the Swedish,
descended from Thorkild's daughter.
[1]
Per Brahe was in 1561 granted dignity as a count by Eric XIV of Sweden and in 1620 was
the family introduced on the Swedish Riddarhuset (House of Knights) as the first counts.
The family died out in 1930, after which the foremost comital family became Lewenhaupt.
Notable members
The Danish family
Otte Brahe (1517-1571): nobleman, governor and member of the Rigsraad
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601): nobleman, astronomer, astrologer and alchemist
Sophia Brahe (1556-1643): horticulturalist, healer, historian and astronomer
The Swedish family
Per Brahe the Elder (1520-1590): statesman
Erik Brahe (1552-1614)
Gustaf Brahe (1558-1615), riksrad of Sweden -loyal to king Sigismund- and later,
Polish general.
Magnus Brahe (1564-1633)
Ebba Brahe (1596-1674): lady-in-waiting and mistress of future king Gustavus
Adolphus, wife of Jakob De la Gardie
Abraham Brahe (1577-1650)
Per Brahe the Younger (1602-1680): soldier and statesman, Governor General of
Finland, Drost of the Realm
Nils Brahe (1604-1632): general in the Swedish army
Nils Brahe (1633-1699)
Erik Brahe (1722-1756): politician of the court party, failed with a coup d'tat to
reestablish the absolute monarchy and was executed.
Magnus Fredrik Brahe (1756-1826),
Brahe
18
Magnus Brahe (1790-1844): Marchal of the Realm and the right hand man of Charles
XIV John
External links
[1] Store Danske Encyklopdi, CD-ROM edition, entry "Brahe", 2004. ()
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=257192354
Contributors: Baronnet, Firsfron, Gustavo Szwedowski de Korwin, Jgeortsis, Shenme, Terot, 4 anonymous edits
Otte Brahe
Otte Brahe [Otte b] (c. 1517 9 May 1571), was a Danish (Scanian) nobleman who is
best known for his son, Tycho Brahe.
Life
Family life
Brahe married Beate Bille in 1544. Both the Brahes and the Billes were among the most
powerful noble families in Denmark during their lives. Both families owned farms, forests,
and land as well as very nice homes in several Danish cities including Copenhagen. Both
families controlled many. Together they built a brick castle at Knudstrup that was
completed in 1550. Their first child was a daughter, Lizbeth. This was followed by twin boys
on 14 December 1546. However, one of the twins died before being baptized and named.
The other was named Tyge (after Brahe's father). It is for their son Tyge that Brahe is best
known as he became a famous astronomer and took on the name Tycho Brahe as a
teenager. Strangely, their son Tyge was kidnapped by Brahe's older brother, Jrgen, in
1548. Tycho later wrote: "without the knowledge of my parents [Jrgen took] me away with
him while I was in my earliest youth. He supported me generously during his lifetime."
While Jrgen took Tyge without their permission, it does not appear that Brahe and his wife
did much to get him returned. Together, they had twelve children, eight of which survived
childhood including daughter Sophia Brahe. Brahe was not enthusiastic about any of his
five sons learning Latin, the language of education at the time, considering it a waste of
time. Instead, he arranged for them to become military leaders, perhaps by working on
court manners, horsemanship, and sword fighting.
Political life
The Brahe family was powerful. At one point, in a bid to expand his estate at Knudstrup, he
burned the crops of seven farmers and chased them into the forest. Brahe was a close ally
of the Danish king. Later in Brahe's life he became governor of Helsingborg castle
(probably due to the influence of Peder Oxe). From 1563 he was a member of the Rigsraad
oligarchy (about 20 members) that ruled Denmark.
Otte Brahe
19
Death
Brahe fell very ill in Denmark in late 1570, Brahe later died in May 1571 leaving Bille a
widow. Included in his estate were 500 farms, 60 cottages, 14 mills, Knutstrup Castle,
manor houses in the country, and houses in Copenhagen. His estate was not fully settled
until 1574.
Book collector
In 2007 the young Mexican scholar Juan Pablo Ortiz-Hernndez edited an unknown Spanish
book of songs belonged to Otte Brahe. The publication of the mentioned collection of poems
is being prepared by Ortiz and the hispanist Kenneth Brown in association with the
Hispanic Society of America and it represents a significant contribution to the discipline of
medieval Spanish literature.
Bibliography
Brahe, Tycho. Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia (in Latin). Vol 1-15. 1913-1929. Edited
by J. L. E. Dreyer.
Skautrup, Peter, 1941 Den jyske lov: Text med oversattelse og ordbog. Aarhus:
Universitets-forlag.
Wittendorff, Alex. 1994. Tyge Brahe. Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad. Strange Cases from the
Files of Astronomical Sociology. University of Notre Dame. Retrieved on 31 March, 2005.
Olson, Donald W.; Olson, Marilynn S.; Doescher, Russell L., "The Stars of Hamlet," Sky &
Telescope (November 1998)
R. Cowen (1999). "Danish astronomer argues for a changing cosmos" (in English).
Science News 156 (25 & 26). Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
Brahe, Tycho. 'Astronomi instaurat mechanica', 1598 European Digital Library
Treasure J.L.E. Dreyer "Tycho Brahe" 1890
Mary Gow (2002). Great Minds of Science: Tycho Brahe. Enslow Publishers, Inc.,
Berkeley Heights, NJ. 0-7660-1757-5. page 16, 18, & 26
Hans Raeder, Elis Stromgren, and Bengt Stromgren (1946). Tycho Brahe's Description
of His Instruments and Scientific Work as given in Astronomiae instauratae mechanica,
Wandesburgi, 1598. Kobenhavn: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
unknown ISBN. page 106
Victor Thoren (1990). The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe. New York:
Cambridge University Press. unknown ISBN. page 13
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=269117321
Contributors: BOTijo, Charles Matthews, FeanorStar7, Leolaursen, Saddhiyama, Someguy1221, Studerby, 20
anonymous edits
Sophia Brahe
20
Sophia Brahe
Hans Peter Hansen engraved this
portrait for the Illustreret Dansk
Litteraturhistorie.
Sophie Brahe, or Sophia, (24 August 1556 1643) was
a Danish horticulturalist and student of astronomy,
chemistry, and medicine, best known for assisting her
brother Tycho Brahe with his astronomical
observations.
She was born in Knudstrup to Otte Brahe rigsrd, or
advisor to the King of Denmark; and to Beate Bille
Brahe, leader to the household for Queen Sophie.
Famous astronomer Tycho Brahe was her oldest
brother. She was the youngest of ten children. She
started assisting her brother with his astronomical
observations in 1573, and helped him with the work
that became the basis for modern planetary orbit
predictions, frequently visiting his observatory
Uranienborg, on the then Danish island of Hveen. Tycho
wrote that he had trained her in horticulture and
chemistry, but he told her not to study astronomy. He
expressed with pride that she learned astronomy on her own, studying books in German,
and having Latin books translated with her own money so that she could also study them
(Tjrnum). Brother and sister were united not only by science, but by the fact that their
family did not approve of science as being an appropriate activity for noble people. Tycho
referred with admiration to her 'animus invictus', her determined mind (Det Kongelige
Bibliotek).
She married Otto Thott in 1576, when she was 19 or 20 and he was 33, and had one child
with him before he died in 1588. Her son was Tage Thott, born in 1580. Upon her
husband's death she managed his property in Ericksholm, running the estate to keep it
profitable until her son came of age. During this time, she also became a horticulturalist, in
addition to her studies in chemistry and medicine. The gardens she created in Ericksholm
were supposed to be exceptional. Sophie was particularly interested in studying chemistry
and medicine according to Paracelsus, where small doses of poison might serve as strong
medicines. She also helped her brother with producing horoscopes, continuing with that
until 1597 (Det Kongelige Biblioteck).
On 21 July 1587, King Frederick II of Denmark signed a document transferring to Sophia
Brahe title of rup farm in what is now Sweden (Svensson, et.al).
During the times she visited at Uranienborg, she met Erik Lange, a nobleman who studied
alchemy. In 1590, there are records that Sophie took 13 visits to Uranienborg, and they
became engaged in that year. Unfortunately, Lange used up most of his fortune with
alchemy experiments, so their marriage was delayed some years, while he avoided his
debtors and traveled to Germany to try and find patrons for his work. Tycho Brahe wrote
the poem Urania Titani during their separation, as a letter from his sister Sophia to her
fiance in 1594. In 1599, she visited Lange in Hamburg, but they do not marry until 1602, in
Eckenfrde. They lived in this town for a while in extreme poverty. There is a long letter to
Sophie's sister Margrethe Brahe, in which Sophie describes having to wear stockings with
Sophia Brahe
21
holes in them for her wedding. Lange's wedding clothes had to be returned to the pawn
shope after the wedding, because they could not afford to keep them. This letter is said to
express anger with her family for not accepting her science studies, and for depriving her
of money owed to her. The letter is described as personal, emotional, and also showing
humor. By 1608, Erik Lange was living in Prague, and he died there in 1613 (Det Kongelige
Bibliotek).
Sophie Brahe personally financed the restoration of the local church, Ivetofta kyrka. She
planned to be buried there, and the lid for her unused sarcophagus remains in the church's
armory (Svensson, et. al). However, by 1616 she had moved back permanently to Denmark
and settled in Helsingr. She spent her last years writing up the genealogy of Danish noble
families, publishing the first major version in 1626 (there were later additions). Her work is
still considered a major source for early history of Danish nobility(Det Kongelige Bibliotek).
She died in Helsingr in the year 1643, and was buried in Kristianstad, in Trefaldighets
kyrka, with the Thott family (Tjrnum).
References
Det Kongelige Bibliotek (accessed 9/25/07) Sophie Brahe: Brev til Margrethe Brahe.
http:/ / kb. dk/ permalink/ 2006/ manus/ 622/ translated by Peter Schler.
Marilyn Ogilvie (1986). "Brahe, Sophia". Women in Science: Antiquity through
Nineteenth Century: A Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography. MIT Press.
pp.46. ISBN 026265038X.
August Ziggelaar (1996) Peter Zeeberg. Tycho brahes "Urania Titani": Et digt om Sophie
Brahe. Book review in Isis. Vol.87, no.3. p. 542-543.
Rebecka Svensson, Caroline Bengtsson & Lisa Jnsson (accessed 12/19/02) rup
<htt;:www.bromolla-solvesborg.se/..toria/Bromolla/Byar/Arup.html> translated from
Swedish by Niels Erik Scholer, 12/02.
Gilbert Tjrnum (accessed 9/18/07) Hvem er Sophie? Nyhedsbrevet Sophie No.3,
27.11.2003. Astrologisk Museum,
Denmark.<http://www.asmu,dk/Download/nyhedsbrev/1.aar/sophie303.pdf> (in Danish).
External links
Works by or about Sophia Brahe
[1]
in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
External links
[1] http:/ / worldcat. org/ identities/ lccn-n85-291420
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=274427815
Contributors: 84user, Addshore, Ascholer, Cf38, Delirium, Dsp13, FeanorStar7, GravySpasm, Mossig, PC78,
Ufinne, WilliamKF, 9 anonymous edits
Uraniborg
22
Observatories
Uraniborg
Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg from
his 1598 mechanica book
Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg main
building from the 1663 Blaeu's
Atlas Major
Uranienborg (Swedish: Uraniborg) was an
astronomical/astrological observatory operated by Tycho
Brahe; built circa 1576-1580 on Hven (also spelled Ven or
Hveen), an island in the resund between Zealand and
Scania, at that time belonging to Denmark.
History
The building was dedicated to Urania, the Muse of
Astronomy and named Uranienborg, "The Castle of Urania."
It was the first custom-built observatory, and the last to be
built without a telescope as its primary instrument. The
cornerstone was laid on August 8, 1576. Tycho abandoned
Uranienborg in 1597, and it was destroyed in 1601. The
grounds are currently being restored.
The main building of Uraniborg was square, about 15 meters
on a side, and built mostly of red brick. Two semi-circular
towers, one each on the north and south sides of the main
building, giving the building a somewhat rectangular shape
overall. The main floor consisted of four rooms, one of which
was occupied by Tycho and his family, the other three for
visiting astronomers. The northern tower housed the
kitchens, and the southern a library. The second floor was
divided into three rooms, two of equal size and one larger. The larger room was reserved
for visiting royalty. On this level the towers housed the primary astronomical instruments,
accessed from outside the building or from doors on this floor. Outrider towers, supported
on pillars, housed additional instruments slightly further from the building, giving them a
wider angle of view. On the third floor was a "loft", subdivided into eight smaller rooms for
students. Only the roofs of the towers reached this level, although a single additional tower
extended above the loft in the middle of the building, similar to a widow's walk, accessed
via a spiral staircase from the 3rd floor. Uraniborg also featured a large basement; it
housed an alchemical laboratory in one end, and storage for food, salt and fuel at the
other.
[1]
A large wall, 75 meters on a side and 5.5 meters high was planned to surround Uraniborg,
but never built, instead a high earth mound was constructed and lasted until today being
the only remain of the observatory still in place. Uraniborg was located in the very middle,
with an extensive set of intricate gardens between the mound walls and the building. In
addition to being decorative, the gardens also supplied herbs for the Tycho's medicinal
chemistry experiments. The gardens are currently being re-created, using seeds found
Uraniborg
23
on-site or identified in Tycho's writings.
Uraniborg was an extremely expensive project. It is estimated that it cost about 1% of the
entire state budget during construction,
[2]
.
Shortly after construction it became clear that the tower-mounted instruments were too
easily moved by wind, and Tycho set about constructing a more suitable observation site.
[2]
The result was Stjerneborg ("castle of the stars"), a smaller site built entirely at ground
level and dedicated purely to observations (there was no "house"). The basic layout was
similar to Uraniborg, with a wall of similar shape surrounding the site, although the
enclosed area was much smaller. The instruments were all placed underground, covered by
opening shutters or a rotating dome in buildings built over the instrument pits.
Upon losing financial support from the new king, Christian IV of Denmark, Tycho
abandoned Hven in 1597 and both Uraniborg and Stjerneborg were destroyed shortly after
Tycho's death. Stjerneborg was the subject of archaeological excavations during the 1950s,
resulting in the restoration of the observatory.
[3]
Stjerneborg now houses a multimedia
show.
References
[1] "Uraniborg - Observatory, Laboratory and Castle" (http:/ / www. tychobrahe. com/
eng_tychobrahe/ uraniborg. html)
[2] "TYCHO BRAHE'S castle URANIBORG and his observatory STJRNEBORG" (http:/ /
www. hven. net/ EUBORG. html)
[3] Google Map of Uraniborg (http:/ / maps. google. com/ maps?f=q& hl=en& q=Ven,+
Sweden& sll=37. 0625,-95. 677068& sspn=40. 732051,96. 152344& ie=UTF8& cd=1&
geocode=0,55. 906098,12. 695870& ll=55. 907811,12. 696403& spn=0. 001765,0.
005869& t=h& z=18& om=1)
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopdia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a
publication now in the public domain. Geographical coordinates: 555428N 124146E
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=274164545
Contributors: Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, Eastlaw, Flopsy Mopsy and Cottonmouth, Jorge Ianis, Kjetil r, Kurgus,
Maury Markowitz, Mossig, Muniswede, Philaweb, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), The Anomebot2, 10 anonymous
edits
Stjerneborg
Stjerneborg
24
drawing of an above ground
view of Stjerneborg
Stjerneborg as it exists today
schematic of Stjerneborg
showing underground chambers
Stjerneborg ("Star Castle" in English) was Tycho Brahe's
underground observatory next to his palace-observatory
Uraniborg, located on the island of Hven in Oresund.
Tycho Brahe built it circa 1581, when he found Uraniborg
neither stable nor large enough for his precision
instruments. He named it Stellaburgi in Latin. Both the
Danish and Latin names mean "castle of the stars".
The underground portions of the observatory were excavated
in the 1950s and are today fitted with a roof approximating a
multimedia show open to the public.
Click on the schematic for more details on the function of the
various chambers.
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=268913038
Contributors: The Anomebot2, 5 anonymous edits
Tychonic system
25
Achievements
Tychonic system
In this depiction of the Tychonic system, the objects
on blue orbits (the moon and the sun) rotate around
the earth. The objects on orange orbits (Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) rotate around the
sun. Around all is a sphere of fixed stars.
Tychonic system
The Tychonic system (or Tychonian
system) was a model of the solar system
published by Tycho Brahe in the late
16th century which combined what he saw
as the mathematical benefits of the
Copernican system with the philosophical
and "physical" benefits of the Ptolemaic
system. The model may have been inspired
by Paul Wittich, a Silesian mathematician
and astronomer.
[1]
A similar
geoheliocentric model was also earlier
proposed by Nilakantha Somayaji, a
Keralese mathematician and astronomer.
[2]
[3]
It is essentially a geocentric model with the
Earth at the center of the universe. The
Sun and Moon revolve around the Earth,
and the other five planets revolve around
the Sun. It can be shown through a
geometric argument that the motions of the
planets and the Sun relative to the Earth in
the Tychonic system are equivalent to the
motions in the Copernican system.
Tycho argued, quite correctly, that if the
Earth is moving, then we should be able to
detect a change in our position relative to
stars (the technical term is parallax). But
he wasn't able to detect that change in
relative position, so he concluded that the
Earth isn't moving. In reality, our position
relative to stars does change. But stars are
so far away that the change in angles is so
small that it can't be observed by the naked
eye, and that's why Tycho wasn't able to
detect it. It wasn't until hundreds of years later that people built telescopes that were
accurate enough to detect stellar parallax. Astronomers of Tycho's time didn't realize how
far away stars were.
Tychonic system
26
A further consideration for Tycho and his followers was biblical scripture. Some poetic
passages seem to assume that the Sun moves or the Earth is stable.
Tycho's system was foreshadowed, in part, by that of Martianus Capella, who described a
system in which Mercury and Venus are placed on epicycles around the Sun, which circles
the Earth. Copernicus, who cited Capella's theory, even mentioned the possibility of an
extension in which the other three of the six known planets would also circle the Sun.
[4]
The Tychonic system became a major competitor with the Copernican system as an
alternative to the Ptolemaic. After Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus in 1610,
most cosmological controversy then settled on variations of the Tychonic and Copernican
systems. In a number of ways, the Tychonic system proved philosophically more intuitive
than the Copernican system, as it reinforced commonsense notions of how the Sun and the
planets are mobile while the Earth is not. Additionally, a Copernican system would suggest
the ability to observe stellar parallax, which could not be observed until the 19th century.
On the other hand, because of the intersecting deferents of Mars and the Sun (see
diagram), it went against the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian notion that the planets were placed
within nested spheres. Tycho and his followers revived the ancient Stoic philosophy instead,
since it used fluid heavens which could accommodate intersecting circles.
After Tycho's death, Johannes Kepler used the observations of Tycho himself to
demonstrate that the orbits of the planets are ellipses and not circles, creating the modified
Copernican system that ultimately displaced both the Tychonic and Ptolemaic systems.
However, the Tychonic system was very influential in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
After the Galileo affair, which transpired early in the 17th century, Copernicanism was
officially forbidden to astronomers in the Roman Catholic Church; the Tychonic system was
a religiously acceptable alternative that matched available observations. Jesuit astronomers
in China used it extensively, as did a number of European scholars.
The discovery of stellar aberration in the early 18th century by James Bradley established
that the Earth did in fact move around the Sun, after which Tycho's system fell out of use
among scientists. In the modern era, the few who still subscribe to geocentrism use a
Tychonic system with elliptical orbits. See modern geocentrism.
External links
[1] Owen Gingerich, The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus
Copernicus, Penguin, ISBN-10: 0143034766
[2] Ramasubramanian, K. (1994), "Modification of the earlier Indian planetary theory by
the Kerala astronomers (c. 1500 AD) and the implied heliocentric picture of planetary
motion", Current Science 66: 784-90
[3] Joseph, George G. (2000), The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of
Mathematics, p. 408, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-00659-8
[4] (http:/ / webexhibits. org/ calendars/ year-text-Copernicus. html)
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=269725460
Contributors: Andycjp, Hibernian, Jagged 85, Logicus, PhilKnight, Sdrtirs, Shaheenjim, Wwoods, Yvwv, 3
anonymous edits
SN 1572
27
SN 1572
Supernova SN 1572
X-ray image of the SN 1572 remnant as seen by Calar Alto Observatory
Observation data (Epoch ?)
Supernova type Type Ia
[1]
Remnant type Nebula
Host galaxy Milky Way
Constellation Cassiopeia
Right ascension 0
h
25.3
m
Declination +64 09
Galactic coordinates G.120.1+1.4
Discovery date November 1572
Peak magnitude (V) -4
Distance 7500light-years (2.3kpc)
Physical characteristics
Progenitor Unknown
Progenitor type Unknown
Colour (B-V) Unknown
SN 1572 (Tycho's Supernova, Tycho's Nova), "B Cassiopeiae" (B Cas), or 3C 10 was a
supernova of Type Ia
[1]
in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of about eight supernovae
visible to the naked eye in historical records. It burst forth in early November 1572 and was
independently discovered by many individuals.
[2]
Historic description
The appearance of the Milky Way supernova of 1572 was perhaps one of the two or three
most important events in the history of astronomy. The "new star" helped to revise ancient
models of the heavens and to inaugurate a tremendous revolution in astronomy that began
with the realized need to produce better astrometric star catalogues (and thus the need for
more precise astronomical observing instruments). The supernova of 1572 is often called
"Tycho's supernova", because of the extensive work that Tycho Brahe (1573, 1602, 1610)
did in both observing the new star and in analyzing his own observations and those of many
other observers. But Tycho was not even close to being the first to observe the 1572
supernova, although he was apparently the most accurate observer of the object (though
SN 1572
28
not by much over some of his European colleagues like Wolfgang Schuler, Thomas Digges,
John Dee and Francesco Maurolico).
In England, Queen Elizabeth called to her the mathematician and astrologer Thomas Allen,
"to have his advice about the new Star that appeared in the Cassiopeia to which he gave his
Judgement very learnedly," the antiquary John Aubrey recorded in his memoranda a
century later.
[3]
The more reliable contemporary reports state that the new star itself burst forth sometime
between 1572 November 2 and 6, when it rivalled Venus in brightness. This corresponds to
an absolute magnitude of -15.8, nearly twenty times as bright as a full moon. The supernova
remained visible to the naked eye into 1574, gradually fading until it disappeared from
view.
Supernova remnant
Radiological detection
The search for a supernova remnant was negative until 1952, when Hanbury Brown and
Hazard reported a radio detection at 158.5 MHz.
[4]
This was confirmed at wavelength 1.9 m
by Baldwin and Edge (1957),
[5]
and the remnant was also identified tentatively in the
second Cambridge radio-source catalogue as object "2C 34" and identified more firmly as
"3C 10" in the third Cambridge list (Edge et al. 1959). There is no dispute that 3C 10 is the
remnant of the supernova observed in 1572-1573. Following a review article by Minkowski
(1964),
[6]
the designation 3C 10 appears to be that most commonly used in the literature
when referring to the radio remnant of B Cas (though some authors use the tabulated
Galactic designation G120.7+2.1 of Green 1984, and many authors commonly refer to it as
"Tycho's supernova remnant"somewhat of a misnomer, as Tycho saw the pointlike
supernova, not the expansive radio remnant). Because the radio remnant was reported
before the optical supernova-remnant wisps were discovered, the designation 3C 10 is used
by some to signify the remnant at all wavelengths.
SN 1572 is associated with the radio source G.1201+14. It has an apparent diameter of
7.4 arc minutes, and is located approximately 7500light-years (2.3kpc) from our Solar
system.
Optical detection
The supernova remnant of B Cas was discovered in the 1960s by scientists with a Palomar
Mountain telescope as a very faint nebula. It was later photographed by a telescope on the
international ROSAT spacecraft. The supernova has been confirmed as Type Ia,
[1]
in which
a white dwarf star has accreted matter from a companion until it reaches the
Chandrasekhar limit and explodes. This type of supernova does not typically create the
spectacular nebula more typical of Type II supernovas, such as SN 1054 which created the
Crab Nebula. A shell of gas is still expanding from its center at about 9,000km/s.
SN 1572
29
Discovery of the companion star
In October 2004, a letter in Nature reported the discovery of a G2 star, similar in type to
our own Sun.
[7]
It is thought to be the companion star that contributed mass to the white
dwarf that ultimately resulted in the supernova. A subsequent study, published in March
2005, revealed further details about this star: labeled Tycho G, it was likely a main
sequence star or subgiant prior to the explosion, but had some of its mass stripped away
and its outer layers shock-heated from the effects of the supernova. Tycho G's current
velocity is perhaps the strongest evidence that it was the companion star to the white
dwarf, as it is traveling at a rate of 136km/s, which is more than forty times faster than the
mean velocity of other stars in its stellar neighbourhood.
Observation of light echo
In September 2008, the Subaru telescope obtained the optical spectrum of Tycho Brahe's
supernova near maximum brightness from a scattered-light echo.
[8]
It has been confirmed
that SN 1572 belongs to the majority class of normal SNe Ia.
See also
List of supernova remnants
External links
solstation.com: Tycho's Star
[9]
The Search for the Companion Star of Tycho Brahe's 1572 Supernova
[10]
cnn.com: Important days in history of universe
[11]
External links
[1] Krause, Oliver; et al. (2008). "Tycho Brahe's 1572 supernova as a standard type Ia as
revealed by its light-echo spectrum". Nature 456 (7222): 617619. doi:
10.1038/nature07608 (http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1038/ nature07608).
[2] [http:/ / www. sciencedaily. com/ releases/ 2008/ 12/ 081203133809. htm Blast From
The Past: Astronomers Resurrect 16th-Century Supernova] ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2008)
[3] Oliver Lawson Dick, ed. Aubrey's Brief Lives. Edited from the Original Manuscripts,
1949, s.v. "Thomas Allen" p. 5.
[4] Hanbury-Brown, R.; Hazard, C. (1952). "Radio-Frequency Radiation from Tycho
Brahe's Supernova (A.D. 1572)". Nature 170 (4322): 364365. doi: 10.1038/170364a0
(http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1038/ 170364a0).
[5] Baldwin, J. E.; Edge, D. O. (1957). "Radio emission from the remnants of the
supernovae of 1572 and 1604". The Observatory 77: 139143. Bibcode:
1957Obs....77..139B (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1957Obs. . . . 77. . 139B).
[6] Minkowski, R. (1964). "Supernovae and Supernova Remnants". Annual Review of
Astronomy and Astrophysics 2: 247266. doi: 10.1146/annurev.aa.02.090164.001335
(http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1146/ annurev. aa. 02. 090164. 001335).
[7] Ruiz-Lapuente, Pilar; et al. (2004). "The binary progenitor of Tycho Brahe's 1572
supernova". Nature 431 (7012): 10691072. doi: 10.1038/nature03006 (http:/ / dx. doi.
org/ 10. 1038/ nature03006).
SN 1572
30
[8] "Tycho Brahe's 1572 supernova as a standard type Ia explosion revealed from its light
echo spectrum" (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 0810. 5106v1). arXiv.org. October 28, 2008. http:/
/ arxiv. org/ abs/ 0810. 5106v1.
[9] http:/ / www. solstation. com/ x-objects/ tycho-s. htm
[10] http:/ / www. ing. iac. es/ PR/ newsletter/ news9/ science7. html
[11] http:/ / www. cnn. com/ 2008/ LIVING/ wayoflife/ 01/ 01/ important. days/ index. html
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=273301815
Contributors: 84user, Andi47, Bender235, BrainMarble, Bryan Derksen, Clpo13, Coemgenus, Fotaun, Jacobs,
Jaraalbe, Levydav, Meowist, Narcberry, Psychonaut, RJHall, RandomCritic, Spacy73, Underpants, Wetman,
WingedSkiCap, Woodsylass, , 19 anonymous edits
Prosthaphaeresis
Prosthaphaeresis was an algorithm used in the late 16th century and early 17th century
for approximate multiplication and division using formulas from trigonometry. For the 25
years preceding the invention of the logarithm in 1614, it was the only known
generally-applicable way of approximating products quickly. Its name comes from the
Greek prosthesis and aphaeresis, meaning addition and subtraction, two steps in the
process.
[1]

[2]
History and motivation
A spherical triangle
In sixteenth century Europe, celestial
navigation of ships on long voyages relied
heavily on ephemerides to determine their
position and course. These voluminous
charts prepared by astronomers detailed
the position of stars and planets at various
points in time. The models used to compute
these were based on spherical
trigonometry, which relates the angles and
arc lengths of spherical triangles (see
diagram, right) using formulas such as:
cos a = cos b cos c + sin b sin c cos
sin b sin = sin a sin
When one quantity in such a formula is
unknown but the others are known, the
unknown quantity can be computed using a
series of multiplications, divisions, and
trigonometric table lookups. Astronomers had to make thousands of such calculations, and
because the best method of multiplication available was long multiplication, most of this
time was spent taxingly multiplying out products.
Mathematicians, particularly those who were also astronomers, were looking for an easier
way, and trigonometry was one of the most advanced and familiar fields to these people.
Prosthaphaeresis appeared in the 1580s, but its originator is not known for certain; its
Prosthaphaeresis
31
contributors included the mathematicians Paul Wittich, Ibn Yunis, Joost Brgi, Johannes
Werner, Christopher Clavius, and Franois Vite. Wittich, Yunis, and Clavius were all
astronomers and have all been credited by various sources with discovering the method. Its
most well-known proponent was Tycho Brahe, who used it extensively for astronomical
calculations such as those described above. It was also used by John Napier, who is
credited with inventing the logarithms that would supplant it. (Additional information:
Nicholas Copernicus mentions prosthaphaeresis several times in his work De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, published in 1543.)
The identities
The trigonometric identities exploited by prosthaphaeresis relate products of trigonometric
functions to sums. They include the following:
sin a sin b = [cos(a - b) - cos(a + b)]
cos a cos b = [cos(a - b) + cos(a + b)]
sin a cos b = [sin(a + b) + sin(a - b)]
cos a sin b = [sin(a + b) - sin(a - b)]
The first two of these are believed to have been derived by Brgi, who related them to
Brahe; the others follow easily from these two. If both sides are multiplied by 2, these
formulas are also called the Werner formulas.
The algorithm
Using the second formula above, the technique for multiplication works as follows:
1. Scale down: By shifting the decimal point to the left or right, scale both numbers to a
value between -1 and 1.
2. Inverse cosine: Using an inverse cosine table, find two angles whose cosines are our
two values.
3. Sum and difference: Find the sum and difference of the two angles.
4. Average the cosines: Find the cosines of the sum and difference angles using a cosine
table and average them.
5. Scale up: Shift the decimal place in the answer to the right (or left) as many places as
you shifted the decimal place to the left (or right) in the first step, for each input.
For example, say we want to multiply 105 and 720. Following the steps:
1. Scale down: Shift the decimal 3 to the left in each. We get: 0.105, 0.720
2. Inverse cosine: cos(84) is about 0.105, cos(44) is about 0.720
3. Sum and difference: 84 + 44 = 128, 84 - 44 = 40
4. Average the cosines: [cos(128) + cos(40)] is about [-0.616 + 0.766], or 0.075
5. Scale up: We shifted 105 and 720 each 3 to the left, so shift our answer 6 to the right.
The result is 75,000. This is very close to the actual product, 75,600.
If we want the product of the cosines of the two initial values, which is useful in some of the
astronomical calculations mentioned above, this is surprisingly even easier: only steps 3
and 4 above are necessary.
A table of secants can be used for division. To divide 3746 by 82.05, we scale the numbers
to 0.3746 and 8.205. The first is approximated as the cosine of 68 degrees, and the second
as the secant of 83 degrees. Exploiting the definition of the secant as the reciprocal of the
cosine, we proceed as in multiplication above: Average the cosine of the sum of the angles,
Prosthaphaeresis
32
151, with the cosine of their difference, 15.
[cos(151) + cos(-15)] is about [-0.875 + 0.966], or 0.046
Scaling up to locate the decimal point gives the approximate answer, 46.
Algorithms using the other formulas are similar, but each using different tables (sine,
inverse sine, cosine, and inverse cosine) in different places. The first two are the easiest
because they each only require two tables. Using the second formula, however, has the
unique advantage that if only a cosine table is available, it can be used to estimate inverse
cosines by searching for the angle with the nearest cosine value.
Notice how similar the above algorithm is to the process for multiplying using logarithms,
which follows the steps: scale down, take logarithms, add, take inverse logarithm, scale up.
It's no surprise that the originators of logarithms had used prosthaphaeresis. Indeed the
two are closely related mathematically. In modern terms, prosthaphaeresis can be viewed
as relying on the logarithm of complex numbers, in particular on the identity e^(ix)=cos x
+ i sin x.
Decreasing the error
If all the operations are performed with high precision, the product can be as accurate as
desired. Although sums, differences, and averages are easy to compute with high precision,
even by hand, trigonometric functions and especially inverse trigonometric functions are
not. For this reason, the accuracy of the method depends to a large extent on the accuracy
and detail of the trigonometric tables used.
For example, a sine table with an entry for each degree can be off by as much as 0.0087 if
we just choose the closest number; each time we double the size of the table we halve this
error. Tables were painstakingly constructed for prosthaphaeresis with values for every
second, or 3600th of a degree.
Inverse sine and cosine functions are particularly troublesome, because they become steep
near -1 and 1. One solution is to include more table values in this area. Another is to scale
the inputs to numbers between -0.9 and 0.9. For example, 950 would become 0.095 instead
of 0.950.
Another effective approach to enhancing the accuracy is linear interpolation, which chooses
a value between two adjacent table values. For example, if we know the sine of 45 is about
0.707 and the sine of 46 is about 0.719, we can estimate the sine of 45.7 as:
0.707 (1 - 0.7) + 0.719 0.7 = 0.7154.
The actual sine is 0.7157. A table of cosines with only 180 entries combined with linear
interpolation is as accurate as a table with about 45000 entries without it. Even a quick
estimate of the interpolated value is often much closer than the nearest table value. See
lookup table for more details.
Prosthaphaeresis
33
Reverse identities
The product formulas can also be manipulated to obtain formulas that express addition in
terms of multiplication. Although less useful for computing products, these are still useful
for deriving trigonometric results:
sin a + sin b = 2sin[(a + b)]cos[(a - b)]
sin a - sin b = 2cos[(a + b)]sin[(a - b)]
cos a + cos b = 2cos[(a + b)]cos[(a - b)]
cos a - cos b = -2sin[(a + b)]sin[(a - b)]
External links
PlanetMath: Prosthaphaeresis formulas
[3]
Daniel E. Otero Henry Briggs
[4]
. Introduction: the need for speed in calculation.
Mathworld: Prosthaphaeresis formulas
[5]
Adam Mosley. Tycho Brahe and Mathematical Techniques
[6]
. University of Cambridge.
IEEE Computer Society. History of computing: John Napier and the invention of
logarithms
[7]
.
Math Words: Prosthaphaeresis
[8]
Beatrice Lumpkin. African and African-American Contributions to Mathematics
[9]
.
Discusses Ibn Yunis's contribution to prosthaphaeresis.
Prosthaphaeresis
[10]
and beat phenomenon in the theory of vibrations, by Nicholas J.
Rose
External links
[1] Pierce, R. C., Jr. (January 1977). "A Brief History of Logarithms". The Two-Year College
Mathematics Journal (Mathematical Association of America) 8 (1): 2226. doi:
10.2307/3026878 (http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 2307/ 3026878).
[2] Prosthaphaeresis (http:/ / www. nmt. edu/ ~borchers/ prost. pdf), by Brian Borchers
[3] http:/ / planetmath. org/ encyclopedia/ ProsthaphaeresisFormulas. html
[4] http:/ / cerebro. xu. edu/ math/ math147/ 02f/ briggs/ briggsintro. html
[5] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ ProsthaphaeresisFormulas. html
[6] http:/ / www. hps. cam. ac. uk/ starry/ tychomaths. html
[7] http:/ / pages. cpsc. ucalgary. ca/ ~williams/ History_web_site/ time%201500_1800/
John%20Napier%20and%20invention%20of%20logs. htm
[8] http:/ / www. pballew. net/ arithm18. html#Prostha
[9] http:/ / www. pps. k12. or. us/ depts-c/ mc-me/ be-af-ma. pdf
[10] http:/ / www4. ncsu. edu/ ~njrose/ pdfFiles/ Prostha. pdf
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=272476833
Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Dcoetzee, IPiAweKid, Jitse Niesen, Scoskey, Stannered, Tom harrison, 9
anonymous edits
Rudolphine Tables
34
Rudolphine Tables
The iconic frontispiece to the Rudolphine Tables
celebrates the great astronomers of the past:
Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and most
prominently, Tycho Brahe.
The map of the world from the Rudolphine Tables
The Rudolphine Tables (Latin:
Tabulae Rudolphinae) consist of a
star catalog and planetary tables
published by Johannes Kepler in
1627. Named after Emperor
Rudolf II, they contain positions
for the 1,006 stars measured by
Tycho Brahe, and 400 and more
stars from Ptolemy and Johann
Bayer, with directions and tables
for locating the planets of the solar
system.
The new tables supersede the
older Prussian Tables (Erasmus
Reinhold, 1551) and Alphonsine
tables (13th century). The purpose
of the Rudolphine Tables is
essentially to provide an accurate
tool for erecting horoscopes,
including many function tables of
logarithms and antilogarithms, and
instructive examples for
computing planetary positions.
The tables based observations by
Tycho Brahe are accurate mostly
up to one arc minute,
[1]
and were
the first to include corrective
factors for atmospheric
refraction.
[2]
Publication
When publishing the Rudolphine
Tables, Kepler was hard-pressed to
fight off Tycho's numerous
relatives. These relatives
throughout the entire publication
process were constantly trying to
win control of the observations for
the profit of them, with the case that Tycho's work should benefit his own family, and not
one of Tycho's own competitors. Kepler considered this very unfair, because he and Tycho
had been collaborating to work together on the data for many years before Tycho's death,
Rudolphine Tables
35
and was responsible for much of the calculations and organization of the data.
Nevertheless, Kepler did win control of the tables and published them himself while the
Brahe family got none of it.
See also
Star cartography
External links
Universittsbibliothek Kiel Digiport: Tabul Rudolphin
[3]
- Bartsch version from
1627, with appendices on Schiller's Christian constellations and Bartsch'es own
constellation innovations.
External links
[1] Uranometria 2000.0, vol 1, page XVII, Tirion, Lovi and Rappaport, 1987, ISBN
0-993396-15-8
[2] The New Encyclopdia Britannica, 1988, Volume 10, pg. 232
[3] http:/ / www. uni-kiel. de/ ub/ digiport/ bis1800/ Arch3_436. html
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=261812742
Contributors: 84user, Cactus Guru, Davewild, FocalPoint, Jaraalbe, Matthead, Nigholith, Rjwilmsi, Rursus,
Wassermann, 3 anonymous edits
Instruments
36
Appendix
Instruments
Tycho Brahe made this sketch of the
great quadrant he built near Augsburg.
Instruments
37
Smaller scale reconstruction of Tycho's Augsburger Quadrant in Rmerturm in Gggingen -
the celestial object is sighted along the upper right-hand straight edge and its elevation
read off where the plumb-line crosses the curved vernier scale.
Instruments
38
Closeup of model shows the vernier scale has a precision of one arcminute - the numbers
indicate the degrees of elevation of the celestial object sighted along the right-hand side
straight edge
The plan-view schematic on the left shows the Stjerneborg
observatory bounded by a square wall with semi-circular extensions
on each side, the entrance on the left lies in the direction of the
nearby palace Uraniborg. Annotations are: * A = Entrance with steps
leading down into the main workroom (B) and (D) and (E), above are
three lion sculptures and Latin inscriptions * B = The main Workroom
containing (P) and (V) and passages to (C), (F), (G), and (Q) * C =
chamber with large equatorial instrument * D = chamber with
elevation and azimuth quadrant * E = chamber with armillary sphere
* F = chamber with elevation and azimuth quadrant encompassed by
a steel square * G = chamber with sextant for measuring distances *
H = stone pillars one with a ball on top, the other angled, situated at
the near side * I = stone pillars one with a ball on top, the other angled, situated at the far side * K, L, N and T =
large balls, with conical covers, used for mounting instruments * M = Stone table, shown with sundial in Willem
Blaeu's drawing * O = bed of Tycho Brahe * P = fireplace * Q = Tycho's assistant's bedroom * S = beginning of an
underground passage to Uraniborg * V = worktable. The 2005 photograph below shows a replica of the
observatory restored.
Instruments
39
Source: http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?oldid=274452813
Contributors: 84user
License
40
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License
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