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Jump to navigationJump to searchNew page: Image:lighterstill.jpg '''Tycho Brahe''', born '''Tyge Ottesen Brahe''' (December 14 1546 – October 24 1601), was a Danish nobleman fame...
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'''Tycho Brahe''', born '''Tyge Ottesen Brahe''' ([[December 14]] [[1546]] – [[October 24]] [[1601]]), was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[nobility|nobleman]] famed for his accurate and comprehensive [[astronomy|astronomical]] observations. Hailing from [[Skåneland|Scania]], now part of modern-day Sweden, Brahe was well known in his lifetime as an [[astrology|astrologer]] and [[alchemy|alchemist]].
The [[Latinized]] name '''Tycho Brahe''' is usually pronounced {{IPA|[ˈtaɪ.kəʊ ˈbɹɑː.hi]}} or {{IPA|[ˈtaɪ.kəʊ ˈbɹɑː.ə]}} in [[English language|English]]. The original Danish name '''Tyge Ottesen Brahe''' is pronounced in Modern Standard [[Danish language|Danish]] as {{IPA|[ˈtˢyː.y ˈʌ.d̥ə.sn̩ ˈb̥ʁɑː.ʊ]}}.
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. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the [[geometry|geometrical]] benefits of the [[Copernican system]] with the philosophical benefits of the [[Ptolemaic system]] into his own model of the universe, the [[Tychonic system]]. From [[1600]] until his death in [[1601]], he was assisted by [[Johannes Kepler]], who would later use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy. He is universally referred to as "Tycho" rather than by his surname "Brahe", as was common in Scandinavia.
He is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data were used by his assistant Kepler to derive the [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|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 so as to determine whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the heavens.
==Life==
===Early years===
Tycho Brahe was born ''Tyge Ottesen Brahe (de Knutstorp)'', adopting the Latinised form ''Tycho'' around age fifteen (sometimes written ''Tÿcho''). He is often misnamed ''Tycho de Brahe''. He was born at his family's ancestral seat of [[Knutstorp]] [[Castle]], [[Denmark]] to [[Otte Brahe]] and [[Beate Bille]]. His [[Twin|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 in the [[Denmark|Danish]] King's court. His mother, Beate Bille, also came from an important family that had produced leading churchmen and politicians. In his youth he lived at [[Hvedborg Manor]], [[Funen]], [[Denmark]] with his uncle and attended [[Horne Church]] in nearby Horne.
Tycho later wrote that when he was around two, his uncle, Danish nobleman [[Jørgen 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. Tycho lived with his childless uncle and aunt, Jørgen Brahe and [[Inger Oxe]], in the [[Tostrup Castle]] until he was six years old. Around [[1552]] his uncle was given the command of [[Vordingborg Castle]] to which they moved, and where Tycho began a Latin education until he was 12 years old.
On [[April 19]] [[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 [[August 21]] [[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''.
<blockquote>
''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).
</blockquote>
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 accurate to the [[arcminute]]. His sister, Sophia, assisted Tycho in many of his measurements. These jealously guarded measurements were "usurped" by Kepler following Tycho's death.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Illustrated on the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy | author = Stephen Hawking | url = 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 | publisher = Running Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0762418982 }}</ref> Tycho was the last major astronomer to work without the aid of a [[telescope]], soon to be turned toward the sky by [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]].
===Tycho's nose===
While a student, Tycho lost part of his [[nose]] in a [[duel]] with [[rapier]]s with [[Manderup Parsbjerg]], a fellow Danish nobleman. This occurred in the [[Christmas/winter holiday season|Christmas season]] of [[1566]], after a fair amount of drinking, while the just turned 20-year-old Tycho was studying at the [[University of Rostock]] in [[Germany]]. 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. A consequence of this was that Tycho developed an interest in [[medicine]] and [[alchemy]]. For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a replacement made of [[silver]] and [[gold]] blended into a flesh tone, and used an [[adhesive balm]] to keep it attached. However, in [[1901]] Tycho's tomb was opened and his remains were examined by medical experts. The nasal opening of the [[skull]] was rimmed with green, a sign of exposure to [[copper]], not silver or gold. Some historians have speculated that he wore a number of different [[prosthetic]]s for different occasions, noting that a [[copper]] nose would have been more comfortable and less heavy than a [[precious metal]] one.
===Death of his father===
His foster father, uncle Jørgen 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 [[May 9]] [[1571]]. Soon after, his other uncle Steen Bille helped him build an observatory and alchemical laboratory at Herrevad Abbey.
===Family life===
In 1572, in Knudstrup, Tycho fell in love with [[Kirsten Jørgensdatter]], a commoner whose father, Pastor Jorgen Hansen, was the [[Lutheran]] clergyman of Knudstrup's village church. Under [[Courts of Denmark|Danish law]], when a nobleman and a common woman lived together openly as [[Marriage|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 land property. (Skautrup 1941, pp. 24-5)
Kirsten Jørgensdatter gave birth to their first daughter, Kirstine (named after Tycho's late sister who died at 13) on [[October 12]], [[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.
[[Image:Cosmos Brahe.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Tycho Brahe as depicted in [[Carl Sagan]]'s ''[[Cosmos: A Personal Voyage|Cosmos]]'' series]]
===Tycho's moose 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 was [[clairvoyant]]) as a court [[jester]] who sat under the table during dinner. [[Pierre Gassendi]] wrote<ref name="fn_1">{{cite web | url=http://www.nada.kth.se/~fred/tycho/nose.html | title=Tycho Brahe's Nose And The Story Of His Pet Moose | work=www.nada.kth.se |accessmonthday=31 March | accessyear=2005}} from a translation from Gassendi</ref> that Tycho also had a tame [[moose]], and that his mentor the Landgraf [[William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel|Wilhelm]] of [[Hesse-Kassel]] asked whether there was an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied, writing that there were none, but he could send his tame [[moose]]. When Wilhelm replied he would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the moose had just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at [[Landskrona]]. Apparently during dinner the moose had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down the stairs, and died: why the moose was indoors was not specified.<ref name="fn_2">{{cite book | author=J. L. E. Dreyer | title=Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century | publisher=Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh | year=1890 | id=unknown ISBN }} page 210<!-- found using print.google.com and nd.edu --> refers to Tycho's elk as cited by:</ref>
===Death===
Tycho died on [[October 24]] [[1601]], eleven days after suddenly becoming very ill during a banquet. He was ill for eleven days, and 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”.<ref>Pierre Gassendi, "Tycho Brahe", 1654</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun | author = David L. Goodstein and Judith R. Goodstein | url = 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 | publisher = W. W. Norton & Co | isbn = 0393039188 | year = 1999 }}</ref> For hundreds of years, the general belief was that he had strained his [[Urinary bladder|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 he later died of. 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 (element)|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.<ref>http://www.tychobrahe.com/eng_tychobrahe/myt.html</ref> According to a 2005 book by Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, there is substantial circumstantial evidence that Kepler murdered Brahe; they argue that Kepler had the means, motive, and opportunity, and stole Tycho's data on his death.<ref name="fn_4">{{cite book | author=Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder| title=Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries | publisher=Anchor | year=2005|id=ISBN 978-1-4000-3176-4 }}</ref> According to the Gilders, they find it "unlikely"<ref name="fn_4"/> Tycho could have poisoned himself since he was an alchemist known to be familiar with the toxicity of different mercury compounds.
Tycho Brahe's body is currently interred in a tomb in the [[Church of Our Lady in front of Týn]] near [[Old Town Square (Prague)|Old Town Square]] near the [[Astronomical Clock]] in [[Prague]].
==Career: observing the heavens==
===Supernova===
On [[November 11]], [[1572]], Tycho observed (from [[Herrevad Abbey]]) a very bright star which unexpectedly appeared in the constellation [[Cassiopeia (constellation)|Cassiopeia]], now named [[SN 1572]]. Since it had been maintained since [[Ancient history|antiquity]] that the world beyond the orbit of the moon, i.e. that of the fixed stars, was eternal and unchangeable (a fundamental axiom of the [[Aristotelian]] world view: celestial immutability), other observers held that the phenomenon was something in the Earth's atmosphere. Tycho, however, observed that the [[parallax]] of the object did not change from night to night, suggesting that the object was far away. Tycho argued that a nearby object should appear to shift its position with respect to the background. He published a small book, ''De Stella Nova'' ([[1573]]), thereby coining the term [[nova]] for a "new" star (we now know that Tycho's star in Cassiopeia was a [[supernova]] 7500 [[Light-year|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 Stella Nova'': "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]]."{{Fact|date=July 2007}} 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]]''.
===Heliocentrism===
[[Image:Tychonian system.svg|thumb|right|250px|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 [[heliocentrism|heliocentric model]] of the [[solar system]]. Tycho believed in a modified [[geocentric model]] known as the [[Tychonic system]], for the same reasons that he argued that the supernova of 1572 was not near the Earth. He argued that if the Earth were in motion, then [[List of nearest stars|nearby stars]] should appear to shift their positions with respect to background stars. In fact, this effect of [[Parallax#Stellar parallax|parallax]] does exist; but it could not be observed with the naked eye, or even with the telescopes of the next two hundred years, because even the nearest stars are much more distant than most astronomers of the time believed possible. The Tychonic system is very similar to the Copernican one, except that it has a static earth instead of a static sun.
In the years following [[Galileo]]'s observation of the [[phases of Venus]] in 1610, which made the [[Ptolemaic system]] intractable, the Tychonic system became the major competitor with Copernicanism, and was adopted by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] for many years as its official astronomical conception of the universe.
===Uraniborg, Stjerneborg, and Benátky nad Jizerou===
[[Image:Uraniborgskiss 90.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Watercolor plan of Uraniborg]]
[[Monarch|King]] [[Frederick II of Denmark and Norway|Frederick II]] of [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]], impressed with Tycho's 1572 observations, financed the construction of two observatories for Tycho on the island of [[Hven]] in [[Oresund]]. These were [[Uraniborg]] and [[Stjerneborg]]. Uraniborg also had a laboratory for his [[alchemy|alchemical]] experiments.
Because Tycho disagreed with [[Christian IV of Denmark|Christian IV]], the new king of his country, he left Hven in [[1597]] and moved to [[Prague]] in [[1599]]. Sponsored by [[Rudolf II]], the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]], he built a new observatory in a castle in [[Benátky nad Jizerou]], 50 km 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 [[astrology|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]].
===Astronomy===
[[Image:Mauerquadrant.jpg|thumb|150px|Mural quadrant (Tycho Brahe 1598)]]
[[Image:Tycho Brahe 2.jpg|thumb|150px|Tycho Brahe]]
Tycho was the preeminent observational astronomer of the pre-telescopic period, and his observations of [[star|stellar]] and [[planet]]ary positions achieved unparalleled accuracy for their time. 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 (planet)|Mars]] enabled Kepler to discover the [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]], which provided powerful support for the [[Copernican heliocentrism|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 products 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 [[List of trigonometric identities|trigonometric identities]] that predated logarithms.
===Astrology===
Like the [[fifteenth century]] [[astronomer]] [[Regiomontanus]], Tycho Brahe appears to have accepted [[astrological]] prognostications on the principle that the [[planets|heavenly bodies]] undoubtedly influenced (yet did not determine) [[Landform|terrestrial]] events, but expressed [[skepticism]] about the [[multiplicity]] of interpretative schemes, and increasingly preferred to work on establishing a sound [[mathematical]] [[astronomy]]. Two early tracts, one entitled ''Against Astrologers for Astrology'', and one on a new method of dividing the [[sky]] into [[astrological houses]], were never published and are now lost.
Tycho also worked in the area of [[weather prediction]], produced [[astrological]] interpretations of the [[supernova]] of [[1572]] and the [[comet]] of 1577, and furnished his patrons Frederick II and [[Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolph II]] with [[natal chart|nativities]] and other predictions (thereby strengthening the ties between patron and client by demonstrating value). An [[astrological]] [[world view]] was fundamental to Tycho's entire [[philosophy]] of [[nature]]. His interest in alchemy, particularly the [[medical]] alchemy associated with [[Paracelsus]], was almost as long-standing as his study of [[astrology and astronomy]] simultaneously, and [[Uraniborg]] was constructed as both [[observatory]] and [[laboratory]].
In an introductory [[oration]] to the course of lectures he gave in [[Copenhagen]] in [[1574]], Tycho defended [[astrology]] on the grounds of correspondences between the heavenly bodies, terrestrial substances (metals, stones etc.) and bodily [[organ (anatomy)|organs]] ([[medical astrology]]). He was later to emphasise the importance of studying [[alchemy]] and [[astrology]] together with a pair of emblems bearing the mottoes: ''Despiciendo suspicio'' ("By looking down I see upward") and ''Suspiciendo despicio'' ("By looking up I see downward"). As several scholars have now argued, Tycho's commitment to a relationship between [[macrocosm and microcosm]] even played a role in his rejection of [[Copernicus|Copernicanism]] and his construction of a third world-system.
==Bibliography==
*Brahe, Tycho. ''Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia'' (in Latin). Vol 1-15. 1913-1929. Edited by [[John Dreyer|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.
*{{cite web | url=http://www.nd.edu/~kkrisciu/strange/strange.html | title=Strange Cases from the Files of Astronomical Sociology | work=University of Notre Dame | accessmonthday=31 March | accessyear=2005 }}
*Olson, Donald W.; Olson, Marilynn S.; Doescher, Russell L., "The Stars of ''Hamlet''," ''Sky & Telescope'' (November 1998)
*{{cite journal | author=R. Cowen | title=Danish astronomer argues for a changing cosmos | journal=Science News | year=1999 | volume=156 | issue=25 & 26 | url=http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/12_18_99b/fob6.htm | accessdate = 2006-09-25 | language = English }}
*[http://libraries.theeuropeanlibrary.org/Denmark/treasures_en.xml Brahe, Tycho. 'Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica', 1598] European Digital Library Treasure
==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
==External links==
{{commons|Tycho Brahe}}
*[http://turnbull.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Brahe.html Brahe, Tycho] MacTutor History of Mathematics
*[http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/tycho.html Tycho Brahe] pages by Adam Mosley at Starry Messenger: An Electronic [[History of astronomy|History of Astronomy]], University of Cambridge
*[http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/planets/brahe.php?num=F&exp=false&lang=lat&CISOPTR=404&limit=brahe&view=full Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition] - Full digital facsimile, Lehigh University.
*[http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Brahe/brahe.htm Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition] - Full digital facsimile, Smithsonian Institution.
*[http://www.kb.dk/elib/lit/dan/brahe/index-en.htm Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1598 edition] - Full digital facsimile, the [[Danish Royal Library]]. Includes Danish and English translations.
*[http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro Electronic facsimile editions of the rare book collection at the Vienna Institute of Astronomy]
*[http://www.skyscript.co.uk/brahe.html Brahe Bio] at Skyscript
*[http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/brahe.html The Galileo Project] article on Tycho Brahe
*[http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/brahe.html The Observations of Tycho Brahe]
*[http://www.dioi.org/vols/w30.pdf Tycho's 1004-Star Catalog: The First Critical Edition], edited and analyzed astronomically and statistically by [[Dennis Rawlins]].
==Named after Tycho==
===Geography===
*[[Tycho (crater)|Tycho crater]] on [[the Moon]]
*[[Tycho Brahe (crater)|Tycho Brahe crater]] on [[Mars (planet)|Mars]]
===Things===
*[[Tycho Brahe Planetarium]] in [[Copenhagen]], Denmark.
*[[M/F Tycho Brahe]], a [[Scandlines]] ferry connecting [[Elsinore|Helsingør]] in Denmark and [[Helsingborg]] in Sweden
*[http://www.helsingborg.se/templates/SubMain.aspx?id=7556 Tycho Braheskolan], a science college in [[Helsingborg]]
*US Naval Observatory Time Service Department web site [http://tycho.usno.navy.mil tycho.usno.navy.mil]
===Literature===
*''Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott'' (Tycho Brahe's Path to God) by [[Max Brod]], 1916
*Tycho Brahe, pseudonym of [[Jerry Holkins]] and a character from the popular webcomic ''[[Penny Arcade (webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''
*Tycho Tithonus, the main character in [[William Sleator]]'s 1981 book [[The Green Futures of Tycho]]
*Tycho Brahe is mentioned in the book "The Golem's Eye", by Jonathan Stroud, as Bartimaeus' erstwhile master. Bartimaeus claims to have made Tycho's false nose.
===Music===
*[http://www.tychomusic.com Tycho] (Scott Hansen), an American [[electronic musician]]
*[http://www.tycho.com.au Tycho Brahe], an Australian powersynth band
*An old name of an Irish synthpop band, now called [http://www.tychonaut.com Tychonaut]
*Tycobrahe Sound Company[http://wc6w.50webs.com/wc6wvint/index.html?fr41.html] of [[Hermosa Beach, California]].
*The name of an album by French electronic duo ''Lightwave''
[[Category: Astronomy]]
[[Category: Cosmology]]
[[Category: Biography]]
'''Tycho Brahe''', born '''Tyge Ottesen Brahe''' ([[December 14]] [[1546]] – [[October 24]] [[1601]]), was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[nobility|nobleman]] famed for his accurate and comprehensive [[astronomy|astronomical]] observations. Hailing from [[Skåneland|Scania]], now part of modern-day Sweden, Brahe was well known in his lifetime as an [[astrology|astrologer]] and [[alchemy|alchemist]].
The [[Latinized]] name '''Tycho Brahe''' is usually pronounced {{IPA|[ˈtaɪ.kəʊ ˈbɹɑː.hi]}} or {{IPA|[ˈtaɪ.kəʊ ˈbɹɑː.ə]}} in [[English language|English]]. The original Danish name '''Tyge Ottesen Brahe''' is pronounced in Modern Standard [[Danish language|Danish]] as {{IPA|[ˈtˢyː.y ˈʌ.d̥ə.sn̩ ˈb̥ʁɑː.ʊ]}}.
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. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the [[geometry|geometrical]] benefits of the [[Copernican system]] with the philosophical benefits of the [[Ptolemaic system]] into his own model of the universe, the [[Tychonic system]]. From [[1600]] until his death in [[1601]], he was assisted by [[Johannes Kepler]], who would later use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy. He is universally referred to as "Tycho" rather than by his surname "Brahe", as was common in Scandinavia.
He is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data were used by his assistant Kepler to derive the [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|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 so as to determine whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the heavens.
==Life==
===Early years===
Tycho Brahe was born ''Tyge Ottesen Brahe (de Knutstorp)'', adopting the Latinised form ''Tycho'' around age fifteen (sometimes written ''Tÿcho''). He is often misnamed ''Tycho de Brahe''. He was born at his family's ancestral seat of [[Knutstorp]] [[Castle]], [[Denmark]] to [[Otte Brahe]] and [[Beate Bille]]. His [[Twin|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 in the [[Denmark|Danish]] King's court. His mother, Beate Bille, also came from an important family that had produced leading churchmen and politicians. In his youth he lived at [[Hvedborg Manor]], [[Funen]], [[Denmark]] with his uncle and attended [[Horne Church]] in nearby Horne.
Tycho later wrote that when he was around two, his uncle, Danish nobleman [[Jørgen 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. Tycho lived with his childless uncle and aunt, Jørgen Brahe and [[Inger Oxe]], in the [[Tostrup Castle]] until he was six years old. Around [[1552]] his uncle was given the command of [[Vordingborg Castle]] to which they moved, and where Tycho began a Latin education until he was 12 years old.
On [[April 19]] [[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 [[August 21]] [[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''.
<blockquote>
''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).
</blockquote>
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 accurate to the [[arcminute]]. His sister, Sophia, assisted Tycho in many of his measurements. These jealously guarded measurements were "usurped" by Kepler following Tycho's death.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Illustrated on the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy | author = Stephen Hawking | url = 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 | publisher = Running Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 0762418982 }}</ref> Tycho was the last major astronomer to work without the aid of a [[telescope]], soon to be turned toward the sky by [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]].
===Tycho's nose===
While a student, Tycho lost part of his [[nose]] in a [[duel]] with [[rapier]]s with [[Manderup Parsbjerg]], a fellow Danish nobleman. This occurred in the [[Christmas/winter holiday season|Christmas season]] of [[1566]], after a fair amount of drinking, while the just turned 20-year-old Tycho was studying at the [[University of Rostock]] in [[Germany]]. 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. A consequence of this was that Tycho developed an interest in [[medicine]] and [[alchemy]]. For the rest of his life, he was said to have worn a replacement made of [[silver]] and [[gold]] blended into a flesh tone, and used an [[adhesive balm]] to keep it attached. However, in [[1901]] Tycho's tomb was opened and his remains were examined by medical experts. The nasal opening of the [[skull]] was rimmed with green, a sign of exposure to [[copper]], not silver or gold. Some historians have speculated that he wore a number of different [[prosthetic]]s for different occasions, noting that a [[copper]] nose would have been more comfortable and less heavy than a [[precious metal]] one.
===Death of his father===
His foster father, uncle Jørgen 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 [[May 9]] [[1571]]. Soon after, his other uncle Steen Bille helped him build an observatory and alchemical laboratory at Herrevad Abbey.
===Family life===
In 1572, in Knudstrup, Tycho fell in love with [[Kirsten Jørgensdatter]], a commoner whose father, Pastor Jorgen Hansen, was the [[Lutheran]] clergyman of Knudstrup's village church. Under [[Courts of Denmark|Danish law]], when a nobleman and a common woman lived together openly as [[Marriage|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 land property. (Skautrup 1941, pp. 24-5)
Kirsten Jørgensdatter gave birth to their first daughter, Kirstine (named after Tycho's late sister who died at 13) on [[October 12]], [[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.
[[Image:Cosmos Brahe.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Tycho Brahe as depicted in [[Carl Sagan]]'s ''[[Cosmos: A Personal Voyage|Cosmos]]'' series]]
===Tycho's moose 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 was [[clairvoyant]]) as a court [[jester]] who sat under the table during dinner. [[Pierre Gassendi]] wrote<ref name="fn_1">{{cite web | url=http://www.nada.kth.se/~fred/tycho/nose.html | title=Tycho Brahe's Nose And The Story Of His Pet Moose | work=www.nada.kth.se |accessmonthday=31 March | accessyear=2005}} from a translation from Gassendi</ref> that Tycho also had a tame [[moose]], and that his mentor the Landgraf [[William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel|Wilhelm]] of [[Hesse-Kassel]] asked whether there was an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied, writing that there were none, but he could send his tame [[moose]]. When Wilhelm replied he would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the moose had just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at [[Landskrona]]. Apparently during dinner the moose had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down the stairs, and died: why the moose was indoors was not specified.<ref name="fn_2">{{cite book | author=J. L. E. Dreyer | title=Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century | publisher=Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh | year=1890 | id=unknown ISBN }} page 210<!-- found using print.google.com and nd.edu --> refers to Tycho's elk as cited by:</ref>
===Death===
Tycho died on [[October 24]] [[1601]], eleven days after suddenly becoming very ill during a banquet. He was ill for eleven days, and 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”.<ref>Pierre Gassendi, "Tycho Brahe", 1654</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun | author = David L. Goodstein and Judith R. Goodstein | url = 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 | publisher = W. W. Norton & Co | isbn = 0393039188 | year = 1999 }}</ref> For hundreds of years, the general belief was that he had strained his [[Urinary bladder|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 he later died of. 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 (element)|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.<ref>http://www.tychobrahe.com/eng_tychobrahe/myt.html</ref> According to a 2005 book by Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, there is substantial circumstantial evidence that Kepler murdered Brahe; they argue that Kepler had the means, motive, and opportunity, and stole Tycho's data on his death.<ref name="fn_4">{{cite book | author=Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder| title=Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries | publisher=Anchor | year=2005|id=ISBN 978-1-4000-3176-4 }}</ref> According to the Gilders, they find it "unlikely"<ref name="fn_4"/> Tycho could have poisoned himself since he was an alchemist known to be familiar with the toxicity of different mercury compounds.
Tycho Brahe's body is currently interred in a tomb in the [[Church of Our Lady in front of Týn]] near [[Old Town Square (Prague)|Old Town Square]] near the [[Astronomical Clock]] in [[Prague]].
==Career: observing the heavens==
===Supernova===
On [[November 11]], [[1572]], Tycho observed (from [[Herrevad Abbey]]) a very bright star which unexpectedly appeared in the constellation [[Cassiopeia (constellation)|Cassiopeia]], now named [[SN 1572]]. Since it had been maintained since [[Ancient history|antiquity]] that the world beyond the orbit of the moon, i.e. that of the fixed stars, was eternal and unchangeable (a fundamental axiom of the [[Aristotelian]] world view: celestial immutability), other observers held that the phenomenon was something in the Earth's atmosphere. Tycho, however, observed that the [[parallax]] of the object did not change from night to night, suggesting that the object was far away. Tycho argued that a nearby object should appear to shift its position with respect to the background. He published a small book, ''De Stella Nova'' ([[1573]]), thereby coining the term [[nova]] for a "new" star (we now know that Tycho's star in Cassiopeia was a [[supernova]] 7500 [[Light-year|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 Stella Nova'': "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]]."{{Fact|date=July 2007}} 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]]''.
===Heliocentrism===
[[Image:Tychonian system.svg|thumb|right|250px|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 [[heliocentrism|heliocentric model]] of the [[solar system]]. Tycho believed in a modified [[geocentric model]] known as the [[Tychonic system]], for the same reasons that he argued that the supernova of 1572 was not near the Earth. He argued that if the Earth were in motion, then [[List of nearest stars|nearby stars]] should appear to shift their positions with respect to background stars. In fact, this effect of [[Parallax#Stellar parallax|parallax]] does exist; but it could not be observed with the naked eye, or even with the telescopes of the next two hundred years, because even the nearest stars are much more distant than most astronomers of the time believed possible. The Tychonic system is very similar to the Copernican one, except that it has a static earth instead of a static sun.
In the years following [[Galileo]]'s observation of the [[phases of Venus]] in 1610, which made the [[Ptolemaic system]] intractable, the Tychonic system became the major competitor with Copernicanism, and was adopted by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] for many years as its official astronomical conception of the universe.
===Uraniborg, Stjerneborg, and Benátky nad Jizerou===
[[Image:Uraniborgskiss 90.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Watercolor plan of Uraniborg]]
[[Monarch|King]] [[Frederick II of Denmark and Norway|Frederick II]] of [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]], impressed with Tycho's 1572 observations, financed the construction of two observatories for Tycho on the island of [[Hven]] in [[Oresund]]. These were [[Uraniborg]] and [[Stjerneborg]]. Uraniborg also had a laboratory for his [[alchemy|alchemical]] experiments.
Because Tycho disagreed with [[Christian IV of Denmark|Christian IV]], the new king of his country, he left Hven in [[1597]] and moved to [[Prague]] in [[1599]]. Sponsored by [[Rudolf II]], the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]], he built a new observatory in a castle in [[Benátky nad Jizerou]], 50 km 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 [[astrology|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]].
===Astronomy===
[[Image:Mauerquadrant.jpg|thumb|150px|Mural quadrant (Tycho Brahe 1598)]]
[[Image:Tycho Brahe 2.jpg|thumb|150px|Tycho Brahe]]
Tycho was the preeminent observational astronomer of the pre-telescopic period, and his observations of [[star|stellar]] and [[planet]]ary positions achieved unparalleled accuracy for their time. 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 (planet)|Mars]] enabled Kepler to discover the [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion|laws of planetary motion]], which provided powerful support for the [[Copernican heliocentrism|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 products 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 [[List of trigonometric identities|trigonometric identities]] that predated logarithms.
===Astrology===
Like the [[fifteenth century]] [[astronomer]] [[Regiomontanus]], Tycho Brahe appears to have accepted [[astrological]] prognostications on the principle that the [[planets|heavenly bodies]] undoubtedly influenced (yet did not determine) [[Landform|terrestrial]] events, but expressed [[skepticism]] about the [[multiplicity]] of interpretative schemes, and increasingly preferred to work on establishing a sound [[mathematical]] [[astronomy]]. Two early tracts, one entitled ''Against Astrologers for Astrology'', and one on a new method of dividing the [[sky]] into [[astrological houses]], were never published and are now lost.
Tycho also worked in the area of [[weather prediction]], produced [[astrological]] interpretations of the [[supernova]] of [[1572]] and the [[comet]] of 1577, and furnished his patrons Frederick II and [[Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolph II]] with [[natal chart|nativities]] and other predictions (thereby strengthening the ties between patron and client by demonstrating value). An [[astrological]] [[world view]] was fundamental to Tycho's entire [[philosophy]] of [[nature]]. His interest in alchemy, particularly the [[medical]] alchemy associated with [[Paracelsus]], was almost as long-standing as his study of [[astrology and astronomy]] simultaneously, and [[Uraniborg]] was constructed as both [[observatory]] and [[laboratory]].
In an introductory [[oration]] to the course of lectures he gave in [[Copenhagen]] in [[1574]], Tycho defended [[astrology]] on the grounds of correspondences between the heavenly bodies, terrestrial substances (metals, stones etc.) and bodily [[organ (anatomy)|organs]] ([[medical astrology]]). He was later to emphasise the importance of studying [[alchemy]] and [[astrology]] together with a pair of emblems bearing the mottoes: ''Despiciendo suspicio'' ("By looking down I see upward") and ''Suspiciendo despicio'' ("By looking up I see downward"). As several scholars have now argued, Tycho's commitment to a relationship between [[macrocosm and microcosm]] even played a role in his rejection of [[Copernicus|Copernicanism]] and his construction of a third world-system.
==Bibliography==
*Brahe, Tycho. ''Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia'' (in Latin). Vol 1-15. 1913-1929. Edited by [[John Dreyer|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.
*{{cite web | url=http://www.nd.edu/~kkrisciu/strange/strange.html | title=Strange Cases from the Files of Astronomical Sociology | work=University of Notre Dame | accessmonthday=31 March | accessyear=2005 }}
*Olson, Donald W.; Olson, Marilynn S.; Doescher, Russell L., "The Stars of ''Hamlet''," ''Sky & Telescope'' (November 1998)
*{{cite journal | author=R. Cowen | title=Danish astronomer argues for a changing cosmos | journal=Science News | year=1999 | volume=156 | issue=25 & 26 | url=http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/12_18_99b/fob6.htm | accessdate = 2006-09-25 | language = English }}
*[http://libraries.theeuropeanlibrary.org/Denmark/treasures_en.xml Brahe, Tycho. 'Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica', 1598] European Digital Library Treasure
==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
==External links==
{{commons|Tycho Brahe}}
*[http://turnbull.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Brahe.html Brahe, Tycho] MacTutor History of Mathematics
*[http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/tycho.html Tycho Brahe] pages by Adam Mosley at Starry Messenger: An Electronic [[History of astronomy|History of Astronomy]], University of Cambridge
*[http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/planets/brahe.php?num=F&exp=false&lang=lat&CISOPTR=404&limit=brahe&view=full Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition] - Full digital facsimile, Lehigh University.
*[http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Brahe/brahe.htm Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602 edition] - Full digital facsimile, Smithsonian Institution.
*[http://www.kb.dk/elib/lit/dan/brahe/index-en.htm Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1598 edition] - Full digital facsimile, the [[Danish Royal Library]]. Includes Danish and English translations.
*[http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro Electronic facsimile editions of the rare book collection at the Vienna Institute of Astronomy]
*[http://www.skyscript.co.uk/brahe.html Brahe Bio] at Skyscript
*[http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/brahe.html The Galileo Project] article on Tycho Brahe
*[http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/brahe.html The Observations of Tycho Brahe]
*[http://www.dioi.org/vols/w30.pdf Tycho's 1004-Star Catalog: The First Critical Edition], edited and analyzed astronomically and statistically by [[Dennis Rawlins]].
==Named after Tycho==
===Geography===
*[[Tycho (crater)|Tycho crater]] on [[the Moon]]
*[[Tycho Brahe (crater)|Tycho Brahe crater]] on [[Mars (planet)|Mars]]
===Things===
*[[Tycho Brahe Planetarium]] in [[Copenhagen]], Denmark.
*[[M/F Tycho Brahe]], a [[Scandlines]] ferry connecting [[Elsinore|Helsingør]] in Denmark and [[Helsingborg]] in Sweden
*[http://www.helsingborg.se/templates/SubMain.aspx?id=7556 Tycho Braheskolan], a science college in [[Helsingborg]]
*US Naval Observatory Time Service Department web site [http://tycho.usno.navy.mil tycho.usno.navy.mil]
===Literature===
*''Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott'' (Tycho Brahe's Path to God) by [[Max Brod]], 1916
*Tycho Brahe, pseudonym of [[Jerry Holkins]] and a character from the popular webcomic ''[[Penny Arcade (webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]''
*Tycho Tithonus, the main character in [[William Sleator]]'s 1981 book [[The Green Futures of Tycho]]
*Tycho Brahe is mentioned in the book "The Golem's Eye", by Jonathan Stroud, as Bartimaeus' erstwhile master. Bartimaeus claims to have made Tycho's false nose.
===Music===
*[http://www.tychomusic.com Tycho] (Scott Hansen), an American [[electronic musician]]
*[http://www.tycho.com.au Tycho Brahe], an Australian powersynth band
*An old name of an Irish synthpop band, now called [http://www.tychonaut.com Tychonaut]
*Tycobrahe Sound Company[http://wc6w.50webs.com/wc6wvint/index.html?fr41.html] of [[Hermosa Beach, California]].
*The name of an album by French electronic duo ''Lightwave''
[[Category: Astronomy]]
[[Category: Cosmology]]
[[Category: Biography]]
