Tycho Brahe

It's fact
While a student, Tycho Lost part of his nose in a duel with rapiers with Manderup Parsbjerg, a fellow Danish nobleman. This occurred in the 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 quarrelled 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 prosthetics for different occasions, noting that a copper nose would have been more comfortable and less heavy than a precious metal one. 




Tycho Brahe 
(1546-1601)
Greatest "observational" astronomer of 16th century 


Born: December 14, 1546, Knutstorp Castle, Denmark 
Died: October 24, 1601, Prague, 
Nationality: Danish 
Education: Private 
Occupation: Nobleman, Astronomer 
Spouse: Kirsten lorgensdatter 
Children: 8 
Parents: Otte Brahe and Beate Bille 

it is noted that Tycho's birth place is now part of Sweden and was given he name Tyge by his parents. At age 15 he changed his name to Tycho. His father was a from the Danish Royal family and had close contacts with the King. 


Tycho Brahe was a 16th century Danish astronomer, who rejected the Copernican system of the Solar System and gave an alternative view, which held till mid-17th century. He thought the Earth was stationery and had the advantage of avoiding the problems introduced by ascribing motion to Earth as Copernicus did. Tycho with his naked eye made so many observations and corrected values of basic astronomical tables and provided the necessary data for later pivotal work by his assistant Kepler. 



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Tycho began his studies at the University of Copenhagen in 1559 intending to study Law. He Later went to the University of Leipzig in 1562,where he started his famous observations of the night sky without the aid of telescopes, because the telescope was not invented. In this context he was able to observe and record a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which were neither predicted by Copernican and Ptolemic tables. At this time Tycho collected and amassed a large number of astronomical instruments. 


Tycho constructed an Observatory in Herrevad Abbey . On 11th November,1572 at the age of 25, Tycho saw a temporarily exploding star and proved Later it had no parrallactic shift. This disproved the popular belief at the time that it was an object near Earth moon System or in the atmosphere of Earth. This star is usually known as "Tycho's Supernova". 


By the end of 1575 he received funds from the King of Denmark to build the first modern observatory, named "Uraniborg" meaning Sky castle. 


Observations that Tycho made gave the basis of his star catalogue he made between 1576 and 1596. He believed that the Earth was stationary and central around which Moon and Sun revolve. He believed that all the other planets revolved around the Sun ,which in turn revolved around Earth. 


After his pension was withdrawn by the king of Denmark, Tycho moved to Prague in 1599 where he was joined by a 30 year old assistant, Johannes Kepler. 

Posted in: Greatest Astronomers