Astro2110 – The Solar System

Tycho Brahe was an aspiring Danish lawyer when he first became fascinated in astronomy. He was reportedly inspired by a total solar eclipse then later a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which is where his practical advancements in astronomy came from. The Ptolemaian and Copernican models were off by several days on predicting the conjunction, so Brahe set to right this. Upon the death of his father and uncle, Brahe set up an observatory to accumulate observations of the sky. His notable accomplishments include compiling data on the movement of planets in the sky, locations of stars, and the observation of a new star that appeared in the distant sky, upsetting preconceived notions of an unchanging sky. This prompted him to propose a system where planets and stars orbited the sun and the still stationary Earth. He did all of this with simple tools, recording instruments, and his eyes. He was born in 1546 and died in 1601. Source: Tycho Brahe

In 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed on England and Queen Elizabeth. Following the religious turmoil between English Catholics and Protestants within the country, the Spanish sought to exploit this by deposing the Protestant Elizabeth and reinstating a Catholic monarch. This had partly arisen due to Elizabeth’s support for a Protestant revolt in the Habsburg controlled Netherlands and the establishment of the Dutch Republic. The Spanish invasion fleet was decisively defeated, and England established naval primacy until 1900 with the rise of the United States Navy, with England also acquiring implicit right to colonization in North America. Source: Spanish Armada

In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg established a legal right to Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire. It was a peace settlement between the Emperor Charles V and followers of the Augsburg Confession. It established legal right to rule by princes of non-Catholic denomination, only Lutherans though. It arose by conversion of electors of the empire to Lutheranism and thus codifying legal rights for religious toleration. It set a precedent for political federalism and self-determination of local rulers. Source: Peace of Augsburg

Ivan Vasilyevich, colloquially known in English as Ivan the Terrible, is Grand Prince of Moscow and later the first Tsar of Russia. Despite increases in the prestige of the Slavic and Orthodox world, such as more government centralization and conquests of Muslim rump Mongol states in the East such as Kazan in 1552, he instituted a reign of terror over his new realm. He executed thousands of threats to his power base, established the first Russian secret police, and even murdered his own son Ivan in anger. He’s notable as a forebearer of Russian autocracy and the future of centralization and police state in the Soviet Union under his ideological predecessor Josef Stalin. Source: Ivan the Terrible

The study of history is the study of us today if we were put into a different culture or time. Ivan the Terrible has a historical analogue in Josef Stalin. The Spanish Armada is strikingly similar to Trafalgar. The Peace of Augsburg reminds me of the Treaty of Versailles. I didn’t particularly learn much from this exercise because I’m a history major, but it does drive home the importance of concurrent events. Being able to mentally scroll over a map to see that Elizabeth I was ruling England at the same time the Danish Tycho Brahe sought to peer into the celestial realm, or some degree of religious tolerance swept over Europe. Incidentally, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, a successor of Charles V who signed the Peace of Augsburg, patronized Tycho in Prague. In any case, humans remain the same, some seeking knowledge, power, prestige, peace, war, glory, wealth. When Tycho peered into the sky political powers influenced his study of the sky, as do they today with NASA.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

Tycho Brahe was the best naked eye observer of all time. He lived before the invention of the telescope, and therefore had to rely on his vision for all of his observations. He presented a geo-heliocentric model of the solar system in which the sun and moon revolved around Earth but everything else revolved around the sun. One advantage of this approach is that it got rid of the idea of rotating crystal spheres held in the Ptolemaic view of the universe, because it would be impossible for orbits to intersect if they were made from crystal spheres. Among other things he observed a comet and a supernova, but his most significant lasting impact to astronomy were the extremely accurate measurements that he made of movements in the heavens. While he did not personally use these measurements to their fullest extent, after his death they allowed Kepler to devise his three laws of planetary motion which are still being used to this day.

Historical Events During Brahe’s Life

1. 1580- Francis Drake circumnavigates globe and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate as well as the first captain of a voyage to fully circumnavigate the globe. (Magellan died in the Philippines)
2. 1588- The Spanish Armada defeated by the English. At that time the Spanish had the best navy in the world and the victory solidified England as an international power. The battle also marked the introduction of long range naval weapons for the first time.

Famous People During Brahe’s Life

1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)- Shakespeare was alive for a good portion of Brahe’s life and is well known as one of the best playwrights in the history of the English language. Many of his plays were performed in the Globe theater and he is known for such works as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Reflection

I think this was a very beneficial activity because it puts the time period of these astronomers in better context. It’s easy for me to learn about their accomplishments, but the dates just go in one ear and out the other because I don’t have a lot of events in the late 1500s at the forefront of my mind. Learning about the historical context makes their achievements seem a lot more impressive and I think its just really cool to see things like the overlap in the lifetimes of Brahe and Shakespeare.

Of the given astronomers, I chose Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601):

Tycho Brahe created precise instruments for observing and measuring the sky before the creation of the telescope. He kept a meticulous record of stars and planets- in particular Mars along with a new model of the solar system which would allow future astronomers to provide sufficient proof for their own theories in astronomy. He observed somewhat new objects or ideas such as comets and supernovae which would prove that in fact the heavens are not unchanging. He tried to observe stellar parallax which he could not find due to the precision of his instruments, but he suggested the Earth was the center of the Universe or stars were too far away to measure their parallax. He chose the former, which is incorrect, but his suggestions would form the basis of modern astronomy. Learn more about Brahe and other astronomers at this website.

A couple historical events that occurred during Brahe’s life are listed below:

Wars of Religion (1562-1598): A series of religious conflicts in France between Protestants and Catholics ravaged the country until the Edict of Nantes, establishing religious tolerance was established. Information on the eight specific conflicts can be found here.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1557-1966): The Catholic Church published a list of books which could not be printed and was used to guide censorship laws until 1966. This index strengthened the hold the Church had over the spread of information and outside influence to common people and thus led to periods of misinformation and mass exiles. More information can be found here.

At the same time Brahe lived, Sir Francis Drake (whom some of you may know from the Uncharted series) began sailing. Commissioned by Queen Elizabeth, he became the first Englishman to sail around the world – an achievement that highlighted the Elizabethan era. He also led forces against Spain in the Americas which ended up fueling the Anglo-Spanish War, but he ended up with millions worth of Spanish treasure and legends of hidden loot. His specific adventures are outlined here.

After researching Tycho Brahe and the other astronomers, I mentally put them in their own category for what was going on in the world during this time. I had never fully put them in context of what the rest of the world was doing at the time, so I found this exercise very interesting. Despite Brahe being on the cutting edge of what a human could observe about the universe, he was not even using a telescope for his observations. And yet, his notes would still be used by other astronomers even after better technology was invented, which serves as a testament to his intelligence and skill. However, at the same time, religious conflict is plaguing Europe, and pirates are ravaging the seas and somewhat newly discovered Americas. It is easy to learn about an event or some discovery and separate it from the rest of history or generalize it to the rest of the world at that period in time. On the other hand, it is important to understand the larger context of for example Brahe’s work as that informs his decisions during that time. He did not dare conclude that any of his work proved the Church was incorrect given the power that religion held during the time which is supported by the Wars of Religion and newly founded censorship guidelines.