Tyge Ottesen Brahe "Tycho" 

(Tee-ko Brah)

Danish astronomer and alchemist, 1546–1601

 

"the greatest pre-telescope Astronomer"

....astrologer, astronomer, alchemist
magi...occultist....alchemical and herbal medicine creator/pharmacist

.... or what can happen if we fully fund science

Early Life

 

  • smelted a brass prosthetic nose & attached w/ paste. May have had silver/gold ones for formal occasions.

  • once had ~1% of Denmark's wealth

“The combination of two hot-blooded young men, heavy drinking and the universal carriage of swords made violence inevitable.”

  • noble, kidnapped by uncle at age 2 ....but parents didn't mind
  • uncle died after saving King Frederick II from drowning
  • witnessed a solar eclipse, left law for science ....particularly impressed that such an event could be predicted

  • duel at age 20

    • in the middle of the night

    • with his 3rd cousin

    • because of an argument

    • at an engagement party

    • about a math problem

  • lost the bridge of his nose & got scar on forehead

Tycho's supernova (remnant)

Observed 1572 type 1a supernova

  • showed it wasn't in the atmosphere

  • had to be further than the moon

  • contradicted Aristotle and undermined christianity, universe not 'unchanging'

  • later inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Al Aaraaf"

Fame

Great Comet of 1577

showed must be beyond the moon → no celestial spheres

preface to De nova stella: "O crassa ingenia. O caecos coeli spectatores" 

("O thick wits. O blind watchers of the sky")

Innovations:

  • defined astronomy from astrology, and tied physics & astronomy

  • pioneer in astrometry before telescopes

  • particularly in instrumentation

  • ​​30 yrs of naked eye data

  • order of magnitude better than anything prior
    • 30 arcsecs (1/60th size of moon)
  • observed 1,000 stars ...made a catalog

Uraniborg, the first modern research institute?

  • given Hven island, built Uraniborg observatory...the best in the world, first time surpassing the Islamic  observatories.
  • open correspondence b/t scientists
  • shared instruments and designs
  • not for intellectual property or profit, but for honor.

  • alchemical lab in basement

  • employed 100 people

  • built their own printing press to publish

  • pressurized water system & flushing toilets

  • on scale of museum of Alexandria, 2000 yrs prior

  • ultimately the 8 km² island was worth 5% the GNP of Denmark

Uraniborg

on Hven island

Stjerneborg

  • made a couple dozen new astronomical instruments

    - Quarans Muralis (giant quadrant/mural)

    - Globus Magnus (5ft celestial sphere, lost in the 30 yrs war)...on which he plotted his observations

  • observations critical for science

  • test rather than just accepting what was published

  • standard celestial coordinates (not based on zodiac)

    • RA and Dec, by use of quadrant and a clock

  • intermediate model of solar system, hydrid of geo- and helio-centric

  • universe has physical nature and Earth is tiny compared to other astronomical bodies

  • increased the size of his instruments
  • used metal and masonry rather than wood
  • instruments were built in crypts
  • permanently and solidly mounted;
  • carefully analyzed all the errors
  • never married, cohabitated w/ a peasant woman named Kirstine (scandalous)
  • Jepp.....the 'clarivoyant' dwarf he employed, stayed under the table during dinner (literally)
  • tame pet moose (elk?), lent out for parties....
  • would trot alongside Brahe's carriage like a loyal dog and lived inside his castle
  • supposedly Tycho and the elk once got into a drinking contest and Tycho won......

 “the moose had ascended the castle stairs and drunk of the beer in such amounts that it had fallen down [them]” to its eventual demise.

a few ....let's call them quirks:

In 1600 Tycho took Kepler as an assistant....

  • though he never trusted him:
    • low status
    • 25 yrs younger
    • mother accused of witchcraft
    • father a mercenary
    • bad eyes and hands from smallpox as a child
    • mathematician/theologian
    • nested platonic / harmonic design obsession
    • Copernican heliocentric model believer, 6 nested spheres, with Sun at center....wrong in all the reasoning and logic but at least right about the model.....but lacked data
  • Tycho observed planet positions against stars for 20 yrs          (data Kepler wanted)

Tycho and Kepler were opposites: Empiricist vs Rationalist, rich vs poor, indulgent vs pious

from Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596)

  • Kepler
  • Tycho's cousin, Erik
    • on behalf of the son of king Christian IV of Denmark (for sleeping with the queen)
  • poisoned himself through alchemy                                         ...or from his prosthetic nose
  • exhumed, twice: 1901 and 2010
    • tested for mercury poisoning
    • traces found in his mustache but not enough to kill him
  • probable death by enlarged prostate/infection, died 11 days after party, age 54
  • was likely diabetic, obese, and alcoholic.

death.... and possible murder?

According to Kepler, Tycho had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette

"He lived like a sage and died like a fool."

-Tycho

Kepler made off with the data....    made his 3 laws of planetary motion

Hven Island

Tycho's relatives

Something rotten in Denmark?

  • Hamlet, written in 1601, the same year as Tycho's death
  • Shakespeare undoubtedly knew of Tycho's discovery
  • refers to "uncle father" and "mother-aunt" ....Tycho did have these....
  • refers to "a bright star westward from the pole"
  • Uraniborg observatory is 9 miles from Elsinore (setting of Hamlet)

Tycho Brahe

By Nic Scott

Tycho Brahe

  • 98

More from Nic Scott