The Observations of Tycho Brahe

Precise Observations before the Invention

of the Telescope

A Danish nobleman, Tycho Brahe (1546-

1601), made important contributions by devising the most
precise instruments available before the invention of the
telescope for observing the heavens. Brahe made his
observations from Uraniborg, on an island in the sound
between Denmark and Sweden called Hveen.
The instruments of Brahe allowed him to determine more
precisely than had been possible the detailed motions of
the planets.

Summary of Brahe's Contributions

Among the important contributions of Brahe:

1. He made the most precise observations that had yet been

made by devising the best instruments available before
the invention of the telescope.
2. His observations of planetary motion, particularly that of
Mars, provided the crucial data for later astronomers like
Kepler to construct our present model of the solar system.
3. He made observations of a supernova (literally: nova=
"new star") in 1572 (we now know that a supernova is an
exploding star, not a new star). This was a "star" that
appeared suddenly where none had been seen before, and
was visible for about 18 months before fading from view.
Since this clearly represented a change in the sky,
prevailing opinion held that the supernova was not really
a star but some local phenomenon in the atmosphere
(remember: the heavens were supposed to be unchanging
in the Aristotelian view). Brahe's meticulous observations
showed that the supernova did not change positions with
respect to the other stars (no parallax). Therefore, it was a
real star, not a local object. This was early evidence
against the immutable nature of the heavens, although
Brahe did not interpret the absence of parallax for stars
correctly, as we discuss below.
4. Brahe made careful observations of a comet in 1577. By
measuring the parallax for the comet, he was able to show
that the comet was further away than the Moon. This
contradicted the teachings of Aristotle, who had held that
comets were atmospheric phenomena ("gases burning in
the atmosphere" was a common explanation among
Aristotelians). As for the case of the supernova, comets
represented an obvious change in a celestial sphere that
was supposed to be unchanging; furthermore, it was very
difficult to ascribe uniform circular motion to a comet.
5. He made the best measurements that had yet been made in
the search for stellar parallax. Upon finding no parallax
for the stars, he (correctly) concluded that either
o the earth was motionless at the center of the Universe, or
o the stars were so far away that their parallax was too
small to measure.

Not for the only time in human thought, a great thinker

formulated a pivotal question correctly, but then made the
 wrong choice of possible answers: Brahe did not believe
that the stars could possibly be so far away and so
concluded that the Earth was the center of the Universe
and that Copernicus was wrong.

6. Brahe proposed a model of the Solar System that was

intermediate between the Ptolemaic and Copernican
models (it had the Earth at the center). It proved to be
incorrect, but was the most widely accepted model of the
Solar System for a time.

Thus, Brahe's ideas about his data were not always correct,
but the quality of the observations themselves was central
to the development of modern astronomy.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), from a rich Danish noble family,

was fascinated by astronomy, but disappointed with the
accuracy of tables of planetary motion at the time. He
decided to dedicate his life and considerable resources to
 recording planetary positions ten times more accurately
than the best previous work. After some early successes,
and in gratitude for having his life saved by Tycho's
uncle, the king of Denmark gave Tycho tremendous
resources: an island with many families on it, and money
to build an observatory. (One estimate is that this was
10% of the gross national product at the time!) Tycho
built vast instruments to set accurate sights on the stars,
and used multiple clocks and timekeepers.

He achieved his goal of measuring to one minute of arc. This

was a tremendous feat before the invention of the
telescope. His aim was to confirm his own picture of the
universe, which was that the Earth was at rest, the sun
went around the Earth and the planets all went around the
sun - an intermediate picture between Ptolemy and
Copernicus.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) believed in Copernicus'
picture. Having been raised in the Greek geometric
tradition, he believed God must have had some geometric
reason for placing the six planets at the particular
distances from the sun that they occupied. He thought of
their orbits as being on spheres, one inside the other. One
day, he suddenly remembered that there were just five
perfect Platonic solids, and this gave a reason for there
being six planets - the orbit spheres were maybe just such
that between two successive ones a perfect solid would
just fit. He convinced himself that, given the uncertainties
of observation at the time, this picture might be the right
one. However, that was before Tycho's results were used.
Kepler realized that Tycho's work could settle the
question one way or the other, so he went to work with
Tycho in 1600. Tycho died the next year, Kepler stole the
data, and worked with it for nine years.
He reluctantly concluded that his geometric scheme was
wrong. In its place, he found his three laws of planetary
motion:

I The planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun at a focus.

II In their orbits around the sun, the planets sweep out equal
areas in equal times.

III The squares of the times to complete one orbit are

proportional to the cubes of the average distances from
the sun.
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, in astronomy and classical
physics, laws describing the motions of the planets in the
solar system. They were derived by the German
astronomer Johannes Kepler, whose analysis of the
observations of the 16th-century Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe enabled him to announce his first two laws
in the year 1609 and a third law nearly a decade later, in
1618. Kepler himself never numbered these laws or
specially distinguished them from his other discoveries.

Kepler's 3rd Law of Planetary Motion

"A change to the orbital period (p) of a planet, squared, is

proportional to a change to its semi-major axis (a),
cubed."

The 3rd Law of Kepler is commonly referred to as the

‘Harmonic Law’, and is usually expressed mathematically
as follows:
Of the sum total of all the components defining the orbital
ellipse of each planet, Kepler’s 3rd law details a most
specific relationship between the semi-major axis of each
planetary body, and its orbital period; such that a precise
change to either one must result in a precise change to the
other, in accordance with a power relationship of 3 to 2.

The semi-major axis, as already noted, is the mean

distance between any given planet and the sun; the
mathematical average between its distance at aphelion
and at perihelion. The orbital period is the total time
required by a planet to complete one full orbit about the
sun, equating thus to the area of the ellipse.
Diagram 1: In the slight elliptical orbit above, the planet is
at its mean distance from the sun when at position M1
(pictured) or M2. The actual mean distance or semi-
major axis itself is denoted by the line connecting the sun
at the focal point to the planet at M1. The whole area of
the ellipse denoted by P equates to one complete orbital
period. (Point P specifies the perihelion and point A the
aphelion).

The orbital configurations of the planets as they stand

 prove the truth of Kepler’s 3rd law. This is not evident
however if just any one planet is examined in isolation. At
least two planets must be evaluated together to
demonstrate that the law is indeed valid in its expressed
form.

For this reason, Kepler’s 3rd Law itself is usually converted

into the form of a mathematical equation, allowing the
details of two elliptical orbits to be compared together. An
evaluation of any two planets within the solar system
employing the equation form of this law readily confirms
its validity, enabling one thus to understand how it is
capable of unifying the whole solar system around the
sun, as the primary central body:
By inputting values into this equation actually representative
of the semi-major axis and orbital periods of any two
planets within the solar system, one can see exactly how
Kepler's law captures a real relationship between the two
planets. An example, making use of the Earth and Mars
will serve to illustrate this, by solving the harmonic
equation for one unknown value, using three known
values.

In this instance, the orbital period of the Earth, the semi-

major axis of the Earth, and the orbital period of Mars
will be chosen as the three known values. The remaining
unknown to be calculated shall be the semi-major axis of
Mars.