Supernova Science in his day In our day Commentary

Tycho Brahe astronomy

Supernova

• A new star
• with no parallax
• meant heaven
• was not immutable,
• and a great comet
• among the planets
• meant Aristotle’s spheres
• were not there,
• according to the great
• Tycho Brahe,
• who saw these things
• with his naked eyes.

Science in his day

• In addition to compiling the most accurate
• planetary and stellar catalogs of his time
• Tycho Brahe was also an astrologer, alchemist, and herbalist.
• He built his own astronomical instruments,
• two observatories, a papermill, and his own printing press.
• His “unlucky days” entered into Scandinavian folklore;
• his herbal medicines were in use for three hundred years.

In our day

• Born Tyge Ottesen Brahe,
• Tycho Latinized his name
• when he was a boy. As an adult
• he published his work only in New Latin,
• De nova stella,
• Astronomiæ Instauratæ Mechanica,
• Astronomiæ Instauratæ Progymnasmata,
• Tabulæ Rudolphinæ.
• Few today, after only
• a few hundred years, read New Latin.
• And here we are, depending on a vocabulary
• that might eventually seem as difficult.