QA773 - Observatory of Tycho Brahe
Fig. 773 (p. 927) - The astronomical observatory of Tycho Brahe at the island of Hven in the Sont near Copenhagen (Denmark) was called Uraniborg. He added in 1584 a subterranean observatory to the project, which was called Stjerneborg.
Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) measured the stars and planets (in particular the movements of Mars) for a period of twenty years in an attempt to understand the cosmos. He came up with a complicated model with the earth still in the center. Brahe left the island of Hven in the summer of 1599 and moved, with all his instruments, to Prague. He died two years later, but his legacy was kept by Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630). The latter became imperial mathematician for Rudolf II (1552 – 1612), king of Hungary and Bohemia, and was able to give three fundamental laws of planetary motion. Kepler proposed a heliocentric view and planets moving in ellipses with the sun at one focus. By doing so, he ‘had overthrown the two-thousand-year-old axiom, according to which every motion retrograde in itself must of necessity be a uniform circular motion’ (CASPAR, 1959/1993; p. 135).
BETTEX, Albert (1977). De ontdekking der natuur (Die Entdeckung der Natur; Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., München/Zürich), W. Gaade BV., Amerongen/Uitgeverij Septuaginta, Hoofddorp/ICOB CV., Hoofddorp. ISBN 90 6113 028 X
See also the (original) illustration from Tycho Brahe’s book ‘Astronomiae instauratae mechanica’ (Wandsbeck, 1598) in:
HENINGER Jr., S.K. (1977). The Cosmographical Glass. Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
A map of the Insula Hvaena was given in the ‘Grooten Atlas’ published by Joan I Blaeu, 1664 (Atlas van Loon, deel I).
DONKERSLOOT-DE VRIJ, Marijke (1992). Drie generaties Blaeu: Amsterdamse cartografie en boekdrukkunst in de zeventiende eeuw. Rijksmuseum ‘Nedelands Scheepvaartmuseum/Walburg Pers, Zutphen. ISBN 90-6011-817-0
Drawings of the buildings are given in:
DRÖSSLER, Rudolf (1990). Astronomie in Stein. Archaologen und Astronomen entratseln alte Bauwerke und Kultstatten. Prisma Verlag, Leipzig. ISBN 3-7354-0019-1
QA773 - Observatory of Tycho Brahe
Fig. 773 (p. 927) - The astronomical observatory of Tycho Brahe at the island of Hven in the Sont near Copenhagen (Denmark) was called Uraniborg. He added in 1584 a subterranean observatory to the project, which was called Stjerneborg.
Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) measured the stars and planets (in particular the movements of Mars) for a period of twenty years in an attempt to understand the cosmos. He came up with a complicated model with the earth still in the center. Brahe left the island of Hven in the summer of 1599 and moved, with all his instruments, to Prague. He died two years later, but his legacy was kept by Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630). The latter became imperial mathematician for Rudolf II (1552 – 1612), king of Hungary and Bohemia, and was able to give three fundamental laws of planetary motion. Kepler proposed a heliocentric view and planets moving in ellipses with the sun at one focus. By doing so, he ‘had overthrown the two-thousand-year-old axiom, according to which every motion retrograde in itself must of necessity be a uniform circular motion’ (CASPAR, 1959/1993; p. 135).
BETTEX, Albert (1977). De ontdekking der natuur (Die Entdeckung der Natur; Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., München/Zürich), W. Gaade BV., Amerongen/Uitgeverij Septuaginta, Hoofddorp/ICOB CV., Hoofddorp. ISBN 90 6113 028 X
See also the (original) illustration from Tycho Brahe’s book ‘Astronomiae instauratae mechanica’ (Wandsbeck, 1598) in:
HENINGER Jr., S.K. (1977). The Cosmographical Glass. Renaissance Diagrams of the Universe. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
A map of the Insula Hvaena was given in the ‘Grooten Atlas’ published by Joan I Blaeu, 1664 (Atlas van Loon, deel I).
DONKERSLOOT-DE VRIJ, Marijke (1992). Drie generaties Blaeu: Amsterdamse cartografie en boekdrukkunst in de zeventiende eeuw. Rijksmuseum ‘Nedelands Scheepvaartmuseum/Walburg Pers, Zutphen. ISBN 90-6011-817-0
Drawings of the buildings are given in:
DRÖSSLER, Rudolf (1990). Astronomie in Stein. Archaologen und Astronomen entratseln alte Bauwerke und Kultstatten. Prisma Verlag, Leipzig. ISBN 3-7354-0019-1