Date: October 20, 2010
Title: Mysteria About Tycho Brahe
Podcaster: Thomas Hofstätter
Organization: http://hidden-space.at.tf (The Hidden Space Project)
Description: Tycho brahe was one of the most important astronomers of the 16th century – although not known very well in public. In this podcast, Leon Dombroski and I describe the devious and often unknown facts about Brahe’s life and death. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions to the podcast, feel free to write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf!
Bio: Born in 1993 near Vienna, Austria, Europe. Upper High School with focus on Computer Science.Interested in extreme small and extreme big, devious and uninvestigated things. My main aim is to bring astronomy to public and to establish secular interest in astronomy, physics and mathematics. Hoster of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at http://hidden-space.at.tf.”
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Alice Enevoldson.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to this episode of 365 Days of Astronomy. My name is Thomas Hofst‰tter and I am the hoster of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at www.hidden-space.at.tf.
[Leon:] And I’m Leon Dombroski from the state of Connecticut in the United States.
In this episode of 365 Days of Astronomy, we’re going to talk about one of the most important astronomers of the 16th century: Tycho Brahe. With his most precise observations, he pushed astronomy forward in huge steps. This podcast is to describe this man born in Denmark and died in Prague. It’s not our aim to give a biography, but to describe the hidden and devious sides of Brahe’s life. “Normal” bibliographies can be found all over the web.
[Leon:] Tycho Brahe lived from 1546 to 1601 and was one of the most important astronomers of the 16th century. Nonetheless, he is not known well in public. Everybody knows names like “Nicolaus Copernicus”, “Johannes Kepler” and of course “Galileo Galilei”. But you mustn’t forget the work of Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer who achieved an enormous accuracy at his astronomical observations.
Tycho Brahe was known to be quite sociably caused by the fact that he was used to celebrate huge banquets at his castle Uranienborg at the island Ven. People from all around Europe were invited. So was Nicolaus Reimers Baer, too in 1585. He had translated the books of Nicolaus Copernicus into the German language and worked as an Astronomer and Mathematican Royal.
[Leon:] It came, that Reimers and Brahe published both books about the same worldview which is now known as the Tychonian System. It says that the moon and sun are rotating around a steady earth and the other known planets at the time around the sun. Brahe and Reimers both blamed the other of plagiarization. Brahe denounced that Reimers had stolen data during his visit and had used it for his publication. After this argument, Brahe never ever showed his exact data to anyone before he had not published it in one of his publications.
Due to arguments with the local king, Tycho Brahe had to move outside Denmark and chose Prague where he worked as an Astronomer Royal for king Rudolf. There he helped the later celebrated astronomer Johannes Kepler who had to flee before the Habsburgs in Austria.
[Leon:] They had a tense relationship because Kepler wanted to publish his latest work, Astronomia Nova (later published in 1609) for which he needed Brahe’s precisely observations of the planet Mars. But Brahe never ever let him see it.
Tycho Brahe suddenly died on October 24, 1601 after some days of illness. Long time, it was generally believed that he died of Uremia. But it was noted that the day before he died, Brahe had nearly recovered from his illness. Moreover, the records about the movements of Mars which should have gone to his children, where absent for some weeks. These facts made scientists puzzle and it was decided to exhume Brahe’s body.
[Leon:] Some of the tests are still outstanding, but it’s a manner of fact that Tycho Brahe highly probable died of Mercury poisoning. It’s now believed that Brahe was poisoned and when he recovered, this person gave him Mercury again so that he was killed. The only person – except for the family – who has visited Brahe on this day was Johannes Kepler. It was also his house where the papers about the movements of Mars were found.
Johannes Kepler published his Astronomia Nova in 1609. That was one reason for celebrating the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.
That’s it for today. I hope, you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf and observe basic questions of astronomy’s past and future as well as hidden and devious facts.
Thanks for listening and clear-skies!
[Leon:] Good bye for now!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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