Tycho Brahe!!!

By: Olympia CalixHarmony Moore

Interesting Facts!!

• Tycho Brahe was born on 14 December 1546 in Sweden.

• He was the eldest son of Otto Brahe and Beatte Bille, both from families in the high nobility of Denmark.

• In a duel with another student, in Wittenberg in 1566, Tycho lost part of his nose. For the rest of his life he wore a metal insert over the missing part.

Interesting Facts (c0ntinued)

• 1572- Tycho observed the new star in Cassiopeia and published a brief tract about it in 1753.

• He was given the little island of Hven in the Sont near Copenhagen, and there he built his observatory, Uraniburg, which became the finest observatory in Europe.

Death!

• One day before he died he kept murmering the words “Ne frustra vixisse videar” ( May I not seemed to have lived in vain.)• He died of mercury poisoning in 1601.

Contributions!

• Brahe was well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologist and alchemist.

• One of his greatest achievements is the observation (naked eye) of the SN 1572 supernova on 11 November 1572 which had unexpectedly appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia.

• 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler.

C0ntributions! (c0ntinued!)

• He believed the sun circled the earth while the other planets circled the sun!

• 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.

C0ntributions (c0ntinuted)

• 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.

• 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.

His Castle!!

• His castle was named Uraniborg. After the Greek Urania!

• When Tycho realised he needed even more stability for good observations than provided in the castle and more room for his instruments.

• He built an observery built mostly underground, which was named Stjerneborg. (castle of the stars)

Important Information!!!

• Brahe invented many instruments such as the Tyconian Quadrent!

• The layout plan, including the large crypts underground are included in this drawing

Review Questions!!

• 1- What instruments did Tycho use to make his astronomical observations?

• 2- Evaluate the honest reason on how Brahe died.

• 3- What was the castle’s name and who was it named after?

• 4- What type of prediction did Tycho make about the orbit of the Solar System?

• 5- How did Brahe loose his nose?

Work Cited!!

• http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/brahe.html• http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/22353

2/350wm/H4020319-Engraving_the_Danish_astronomer_Tycho_Brahe-SPL.jpg

• http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2010/11/medium_tycho_brahe_web.jpg

• http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/tycho_brahe.html

• http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SqhhJb_P3Kk/TPkhLJz5JII/AAAAAAAANEo/DwhW6COSih4/s1600/Brahe+gravestone.jpg

• http://www.doctor-roy.com/sundials/brahe2.jpg

• http://www.nada.kth.se/~fred/tycho/uraniborg.html

• http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5556134579_313e8050d4.jpg