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and scientific books were especially unattainable. It so
happened, however, that a Latin version of Ptolemy’s astronomical
works had appeared a few years before the eclipse took place, and
Tycho managed to buy a copy of this book, which was then the chief
authority on celestial matters. Young as the boy astronomer was,
he studied hard, although perhaps not always successfully, to
understand Ptolemy, and to this day his copy of the great work,
copiously annotated and marked by the schoolboy hand, is preserved
as one of the chief treasures in the library of the University at
Prague.
After Tycho had studied for about three years at the University of
Copenhagen, his uncle thought it would be better to send him, as
was usual in those days, to complete his education by a course of
study in some foreign university. The uncle cherished the hope
that in this way the attention of the young astronomer might be
withdrawn from the study of the stars and directed in what
appeared to him a more useful way. Indeed, to the wise heads of
those days, the pursuit of natural science seemed so much waste of
good time which might otherwise be devoted to logic or rhetoric or
some other branch of study more in vogue at that time. To assist
in this attempt to wean Tycho from his scientific tastes, his
uncle chose as a tutor to accompany him an intelligent and upright
young man named Vedel, who was four years senior to his pupil, and
accordingly, in 1562, we find the pair taking up their abode at
the University of Leipzig.
The tutor, however, soon found that he had undertaken a most
hopeless task. He could not succeed in imbuing Tycho with the
slightest taste for the study of the law or the other branches of
knowledge which were then thought so desirable. The stars, and
nothing but the stars, engrossed the attention of his pupil. We
are told that all the money he could obtain was spent secretly in
buying astronomical books and instruments. He learned the name of
the stars from a little globe, which he kept hidden from Vedel,
and only ventured to use during the latter’s absence. No little
friction was at first caused by all this, but in after years a
fast and enduring friendship grew up between Tycho and his tutor,
each of whom learned to respect and to love the other.
Before Tycho was seventeen he had commenced the difficult task of
calculating the movements of the planets and the places which they
occupied on the sky from time to time. He was not a little
surprised to find that the actual positions of the planets
differed very widely from those which were assigned to them by
calculations from the best existing works of astronomers. With
the insight of genius he saw that the only true method of
investigating the movements of the heavenly bodies would be to
carry on a protracted series of measurements of their places.
This, which now seems to us so obvious, was then entirely new
doctrine. Tycho at once commenced regular observations in such
fashion as he could. His first instrument was, indeed, a very
primitive one, consisting of a simple pair of compasses, which
he used in this way. He placed his eye at the hinge, and then
opened the legs of the compass so that one leg pointed to one
star and the other leg to the other star. The compass was then
brought down to a divided circle, by which means the number of
degrees in the apparent angular distance of the two stars
was determined.
His next advance in instrumental equipment was to provide himself
with the contrivance known as the “cross-staff,” which he
used to observe the stars whenever opportunity offered. It must,
of course, be remembered that in those days there were no
telescopes. In the absence of optical aid, such as lenses afford
the modern observers, astronomers had to rely on mechanical
appliances alone to measure the places of the stars. Of such
appliances, perhaps the most ingenious was one known before
Tycho’s time, which we have represented in the adjoining figure.
[PLATE: TYCHO’S CROSS STAFF.]
Let us suppose that it be desired to measure the angle between two
stars, then if the angle be not too large it can be determined in
the following manner. Let the rod AB be divided into inches and
parts of an inch, and let another rod, CD, slide up and down
along AB in such a way that the two always remain perpendicular
to each other. “Sights,” like those on a rifle, are placed at A
and C, and there is a pin at D. It will easily be seen that, by
sliding the movable bar along the fixed one, it must always be
possible when the stars are not too far apart to bring the sights
into such positions that one star can be seen along DC and the
other along DA. This having been accomplished, the length from
A to the cross-bar is read off on the scale, and then, by means
of a table previously prepared, the value of the required angular
distance is obtained. If the angle between the two stars were
greater than it would be possible to measure in the way already
described, then there was a provision by which the pin at D might
be moved along CD into some other position, so as to bring the
angular distance of the stars within the range of the instrument.
[PLATE: TYCHO’S “NEW STAR” SEXTANT OF 1572.
(The arms, of walnut wood, are about 5 1/2 ft. long.)]
No doubt the cross-staff is a very primitive contrivance, but when
handled by one so skilful as Tycho it afforded results of
considerable accuracy. I would recommend any reader who may have
a taste for such pursuits to construct a cross-staff for himself,
and see what measurements he can accomplish with its aid.
To employ this little instrument Tycho had to evade the vigilance
of his conscientious tutor, who felt it his duty to interdict all
such occupations as being a frivolous waste of time. It was when
Vedel was asleep that Tycho managed to escape with his cross staff
and measure the places of the heavenly bodies. Even at this
early age Tycho used to conduct his observations on those
thoroughly sound principles which lie at the foundation of all
accurate modern astronomy. Recognising the inevitable errors of
workmanship in his little instrument, he ascertained their amount
and allowed for their influence on the results which he deduced.
This principle, employed by the boy with his cross-staff in 1564,
is employed at the present day by the Astronomer Royal at
Greenwich with the most superb instruments that the skill of
modern opticians has been able to construct.
[PLATE: TYCHO’S TRIGONIC SEXTANT.
(The arms, AB and AC, are about 5 1/2 ft. long.)]
After the death of his uncle, when Tycho was nineteen years of
age, it appears that the young philosopher was no longer
interfered with in so far as the line which his studies were to
take was concerned. Always of a somewhat restless temperament, we
now find that he shifted his abode to the University of Rostock,
where he speedily made himself notable in connection with an
eclipse of the moon on 28th October, 1566. Like every other
astronomer of those days, Tycho had always associated astronomy
with astrology. He considered that the phenomena of the heavenly
bodies always had some significance in connection with human
affairs. Tycho was also a poet, and in the united capacity of
poet, astrologer, and astronomer, he posted up some verses
in the college at Rostock announcing that the lunar eclipse was a
prognostication of the death of the great Turkish Sultan,
whose mighty deeds at that time filled men’s minds. Presently
news did arrive of the death of the Sultan, and Tycho was
accordingly triumphant; but a little later it appeared that the
decease had taken place BEFORE the eclipse, a circumstance which
caused many a laugh at Tycho’s expense.
[PLATE: TYCHO’S ASTRONOMIC SEXTANT.
(Made of steel: the arms, AB, AC, measure 4 ft.)
PLATE: TYCHO’S EQUATORIAL ARMILLARY.
(The meridian circle, E B C A D, made of solid steel,
is nearly 6 ft. in diameter.)]
Tycho being of a somewhat turbulent disposition, it appears that,
while at the University of Rostock, he had a serious quarrel with
another Danish nobleman. We are not told for certain what was the
cause of the dispute. It does not, however, seem to have had any
more romantic origin than a difference of opinion as to which of
them knew the more mathematics. They fought, as perhaps it was
becoming for two astronomers to fight, under the canopy of
heaven in utter darkness at the dead of night, and the duel
was honourably terminated when a slice was taken off Tycho’s nose
by the insinuating sword of his antagonist. For the repair of
this injury the ingenuity of the great instrument-maker was here
again useful, and he made a substitute for his nose “with a
composition of gold and silver.” The imitation was so good that
it is declared to have been quite equal to the original. Dr.
Lodge, however, pointedly observes that it does not appear whether
this remark was made by a friend or an enemy.
[PLATE: THE GREAT AUGSBURG QUADRANT.
(Built of heart of oak; the radii about 19 ft.)
PLATE: TYCHO’S “NEW SCHEME OF THE TERRESTRIAL SYSTEM,” 1577.]
The next few years Tycho spent in various places ardently pursuing
somewhat varied branches of scientific study. At one time we hear
of him assisting an astronomical alderman, in the ancient city of
Augsburg, to erect a tremendous wooden machine—a quadrant of
19-feet radius—to be used in observing the heavens. At another
time we learn that the King of Denmark had recognised the talents
of his illustrious subject, and promised to confer on him a
pleasant sinecure in the shape of a canonry, which would assist
him with the means for indulging his scientific pursuits. Again
we are told that Tycho is pursuing experiments in chemistry with
the greatest energy, nor is this so incompatible as might at first
be thought with his devotion to astronomy. In those early days
of knowledge the different sciences seemed bound together by
mysterious bonds. Alchemists and astrologers taught that the
several planets were correlated in some mysterious manner with the
several metals. It was, therefore hardly surprising that Tycho
should have included a study of the properties of the metals in
the programme of his astronomical work.
[PLATE: URANIBORG AND ITS GROUNDS.
PLATE: GROUND-PLAN OF THE OBSERVATORY.]
An event, however, occurred in 1572 which stimulated Tycho’s
astronomical labours, and started him on his life’s
work. On the 11th of November in that year, he was returning home
to supper after a day’s work in his laboratory, when he happened
to lift his face to the sky, and there he beheld a brilliant new
star. It was in the constellation of Cassiopeia, and occupied a
position in which there had certainly been no bright star visible
when his attention had last been directed to that part of the
heavens. Such a phenomenon was so startling that he found it
hard to trust the evidence of his senses. He thought he must be
the subject of some hallucination. He therefore called to the
servants who were accompanying him, and asked them whether they,
too, could see a brilliant object in the direction in which he
pointed. They certainly could, and thus he became convinced that
this marvellous object was no mere creation of the fancy, but a
veritable celestial body—a new star of surpassing splendour which
had suddenly burst forth. In
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