THE NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF SPACE HISTORY

CURATION PAPER NUMBER FIVE

WINTER 2012

‘OOPS, ONCE MORE,’ BY WAYNE MATTSON, USAF LT.

COL. (RET.), AND THE FIFTH AND FINAL CHAPTER OF THE

‘ASTRONOMERS BEFORE TELESCOPES’ SERIES, ‘THE

TRIUMPH OF EUROPE (c. 1500-1652)’ BY JIM MAYBERRY

Colonel Wayne Mattson at his home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, 2004.

The New Mexico Museum of Space

History, a branch of the Department

of Cultural Affairs of the State of New

Mexico, was founded in 1976 as the

International Space Hall of Fame.

The Museum includes the Clyde W.

Tombaugh IMAX Dome Theater and

Planetarium, the International Space

Hall of Fame, the John P. Stapp Air and

Space Park, and the Hubbard Space

Science Research Building.

Publisher’s Note:

The New Mexico Museum of Space

History is pleased to announce

publication of the fifth in a series of

papers, Curation Paper Number Five. It

features the last of the five part series on

the early history of astronomy,

‘Astronomers before Telescopes,’ by

Assistant Curator Jim Mayberry. The

series began with Curation Paper

Number One; all Curation Papers can be

downloaded from the New Mexico

Museum of Space History’s website,

nmspacemuseum.org. Curation Paper

Number Five also has the last article on

military mishaps in the Tularosa Basin,

‘Oops, Once More,’ by Wayne Mattson

(Lt. Colonel Mattson passed away on the

third of February 2012).

There are many histories of astronomy in

the Old World; few have focused on the

people who lived those histories. As the

names of astronomers of New World

cultures are unknown, the series does not

discuss the astronomical traditions of the

Maya or other Native American groups.

The Astronomers before Telescopes

series details the rise, and at times the

decline, of the science of astronomy

prior to the middle of the seventeenth

century and the widespread use of

telescopes. The series consists of:

1) The Age of Giants (c. 2650 BC–c. AD

520)

2) The Not So Dark Ages: the Rise of

India and Islam (476-c. 1070)

3) The Pen and the Sword: Translators,

Moors, and Mongols (1013-c. 1350)

4) Copernicus, Ulugh Beg and the

Golden Age of Jewish Astronomy

(1288-1575)

5) The Triumph of Europe (c. 1500-

1652).

The lives of the more than 500 men and

women discussed in this series illustrate

the progress of the science of astronomy

from its earliest days to the Scientific

Revolution that led to the birth of the

modern world. In this issue is ‘The

Triumph of Europe (c. 1500-1652).’ It

tells the story of how the astronomy of

the West surpassed all others; this was

before the use of telescopes had begun.

In those same years, Western Europeans

would begin to explore, and then

conquer, most of the known world.

The era was highlighted by the work of

two men in particular: the Danish

nobleman Tycho Brahe and the German

astronomer, Johannes Kepler. Tycho

Brahe was the most precise observer of

the heavens before the use of telescope.

Kepler, who worked at a young age in

his mother’s tavern, played a key role in

the triumph of the model of

heliocentrism. This issue also details the

practice of astronomy without telescopes

in parts of Asia as late as the twentieth

century.

Curation Paper Number Six will be a

commemoration of the fortieth

anniversary of the Apollo 16 lunar

landing mission. It will be published on

nmspacemuseum.org, the museum’s

website, in the late spring of 2012.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

‘Oops, Once More,’ by Wayne Mattson, USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) Page 1

Introduction, ‘Astronomers before Telescopes: The Triumph of Europe

(c. 1500-1652)’ Page 7

The Triumph of Europe (c. 1500-1652) Page 14

Glossary of Terms of Terms Used Page 44

Period Astronomers in Popular Culture Page 61

Astronomical Features and Spacecraft Named for Period Astronomers Page 63

Selected Bibliography Page 65

A map of the world that was drawn by Willem Blaeu in the year 1635

Primary Editor: Stacie Pritchett

Primary Author: Jim Mayberry, Assistant Curator

1

‘OOPS, ONCE MORE,’ BY WAYNE MATTSON, USAF LT. COL. (RET.) (Publisher’s note:

Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Mattson passed away at his home in Alamogordo, New Mexico on

February 3, 2012. He is sorely missed).

While nothing was falling from the skies in the

Tularosa Basin during a series of tests during

November and December of 1964, there were

many sonic booms there. Throughout the

United States, there was concern that sonic

booms caused broken windows, cracked plaster

on interior walls and various amounts of other

damage. To try to determine exactly what they

do, a series of heavily instrumented structures,

ranging from a greenhouse to a storefront were

constructed at Oscura Range Camp. F-104s

and B-58s were to make hundreds of passes at

various speeds to determine what damage

would be caused by sonic booms [1].

An F-104 Starfighter (photo credit:

U.S. Air Force)

As part of a public relations program, scores of

reporters were invited to visit this “boom town”

while an F-104 would create sonic booms; thus,

the media could see for themselves exactly

what would happen. Some 80 reporters

attended the event. Initial overflights were

rather ho-hum and nothing exciting happened.

Nothing happened, that is, until the

photographers requested a very low altitude

pass so they could get some pictures. The F-

104 pilot complied and accelerated to

supersonic speed; this created a massive boom.

The resulting overpressure of 40 pounds per

square foot shattered two plate glass windows

and broke about 15 smaller panes of glass in

the mock greenhouse [2]

On Wednesday, February 3, 1965, an Army

missile training battery from Fort Sill,

Oklahoma launched two Pershing missiles from

Fort Wingate, New Mexico. The first missile

‘impacted’ White Sands Missile Range as

scheduled even though it appeared to take

much longer that the usual six and half to seven

minutes for the 200-mile flight. The second

missile overshot the missile range and landed

about two miles east of the southeast tip of

range near Orogrande [3].

A part of Alamogordo experienced unwanted

darkness in the evening of 16 February 1965; it

seems that a missing missile part was the

culprit. The nosecone and attached parachute

managed to land on power lines and caused a

power outage. Airman James Bond of the

6580th

Air Police Squadron found the missing

missile part on North Florida Avenue at 7:48

p.m. Community Public Service personnel

removed the parachute; the instrumentation

payload was given to Airman Bond for return

to Holloman Air Force Base. Electric power

was then restored [4].

Sometimes things are seen to fall, but when

searches are done, nothing is located. At least,

nothing is ever admitted to by the military.

This was the case on the night of April 8, 1965

when three search planes flew over the rim of

the Guadalupe Mountains in southeast Otero

County trying to determine if an aircraft wend

down 25 to 30 miles southwest of the town of

Hope. It seems that rancher Buddy Tulk

reported seeing a blinking red light disappear

2

behind a hill. That was followed by an

explosion and a flash of fire, then another flash

about five minutes later. The Roswell Federal

Aviation Agency reported that no planes that

had filed flight plans were in the area and none

was overdue. State and County officials

doubted that a plane was down and felt that the

observed incident was a missile firing.

However, they could get no confirmation of a

missile firing at the time of the incident [5].

Mountains seem to have a magnetic attraction

for airplanes. This was confirmed about

midmorning of April 14, 1965, when an Army

O1A, based at Holloman Air Force Base,

crashed into a mountain near the TV translator.

This crash created a brush fire that seared five

acres in the Sacramento Mountains. Both

occupants of the Army airplane survived the

incident. The crew of the plane was rescued

and the brush fire was being fought [6]. The

next day the name of the pilot, Captain Thomas

H. Dollahite, was released along with the fact

that he had summoned help after the crash and

the start of the fire. Adverse winds created

difficulty in fighting the fire, which eventually

spread to 120 acres before being contained [7].

Neither the pilot nor his glider were harmed the

evening of April 18 when the craft touched

down in a narrow clear space south of the

Catholic Cemetery on First Street, in

Alamogordo. Captain Robert L. Scheurer of

Holloman Air Force Base was gliding from

Socorro to the Alamogordo airport. Flying

close to the Sacramento Mountains, in an effort

to catch currents to complete his flight, he said

he “ran out of air” and was forced to land short

of the Alamogordo Airport. The glider was

disassembled and taken from the landing site,

which was bordered on one side by a wire

fence and on the other by graves and

tombstones [8].

A portion of U.S. 70 sustained a twelve by

fifteen-inch hole when a part of a ballistic

missile that was being used as a target for

another missile smashed into the concrete. The

highway had been closed for the firing and no

vehicles were driving in the area at the time of

impact. White Sands Missile Range officials

said that this was the tenth time in missile

firings over the highway that a missile or

fragments had struck the road. They said that

was out of more than 15,000 missile firings

since 1950. Highway Department crews

repaired the highway. White Sands officials

did not disclose the type of missile involved in

the incident [9].

A test launch of a Little Joe II on 19 May 1965

could be called both a success and a failure.

The test called for the Little Joe II to climb to

an altitude of twenty miles above the Tularosa

Basin; then a simulated malfunction was to take

place: The escape system for the Apollo

capsule was to fire. This should safely lift the

capsule clear of the “malfunctioning” launch

rocket.

Little Joe II launch on December 8, 1964

(photo credit: NASA)

However, about halfway to test altitude the

Little Joe II rocket experiences a malfunction in

3

the autopilot guidance-control system and this

caused the rocket to spin excessively and then

break up, spreading debris across the sky. The

escape rocket on the capsule was fired; this

lifted it away from the malfunctioning Little

Joe II. Therefore, the test was successful in

that it showed the escape system worked as

advertised, but it was a failure in that the

desired test altitude was never reached [10].

An article in the Alamogordo Daily News on

May 27, 1965, was about a Pershing missile

being fired from Gilson Butte, Utah with an

impact on White Sands Missile Range. The

missile shot was the first from this new launch

complex located about 40 miles southwest of

Green River, Utah. The article indicated that

there was to be a second missile launch, which

was delayed because of missile difficulties; this

was to be accomplished by an overseas unit.

The unit was Battery D, 4th

Missile Battalion,

41st Artillery, which had returned to the United

States for annual qualifications with the missile

[11].

The following day the newspaper carried an

article to the effect that the delayed missile had

been fired, but had overshot the missile range.

However, it did manage to find a big, wide-

open area for impact – McGregor Missile

Range, in southern Otero County. The unit

from Germany’s missile managed to land about

thirteen miles southeast of the town of

Orogrande on McGregor and caused no

damage [12]. The sixteenth of June 1965, saw

an F-4C for the 366th

Tactical Fighter Wing

descend from the sky with the two-crew

members floating down in parachutes. At 2:45

p.m., while coming in for a landing at

Holloman, something occurred which caused

the crew to decide to eject. They did so and

landed safely [13].

A joint military-industrial accident

investigation board was convened at Holloman

to determine why this F-4C crashed. The 35-

member team included professional

investigators and technicians from several Air

Force facilities and aerospace manufacturers

across the nation. The president of this special

board was Col. Edward W. Szaniawski, deputy

director of Aerospace Safety in the Inspector

General’s office at Norton Air Force Base in

California [14].

An F-4C (photo credit: Boeing Photo)

Sunday morning, July 18, 1965, saw an F-104

crash about ten miles west-southwest of San

Andres Peak, and ten miles north of Organ.

The crash took place at 10:04 a.m. The aircraft

was flying a tow target mission when a mishap

occurred and the pilot, Major Wallace E.

Lowman, ejected. He was picked up by

helicopter, flown to the Holloman base

hospital, checked out and pronounced

uninjured. The pilot and plane were on

temporary duty from Webb AFB, Texas flying

out of Biggs AFB in El Paso [15].

Early Tuesday morning of July 27, 1965, an

Athena missile lifted off from Green River,

Utah and landed east of the small community

of Engle, New Mexico, well to the west of

WSMR. The White Sands information office

said the missile hit in a “predetermined impact

area” but a spokesman said he didn’t know if

the rocket had been programmed to come down

in that area originally [16].

4

Saturday night, August 7, 1965, saw two

Athena missiles fired from Green River, Utah.

The first hit White Sands Missile Range as per

plan. However, the second missile fell into the

category of “where are you?” Radar tracking

data indicated that the Athena might have

reached an area southeast of Fabens, Texas.

Search for the missing missile was centered

southeast of there; this was some fifty miles

south of where it was supposed to go. No

reports of damage were received from the

Fabens area and there were no reports of

anyone sighting or hearing the missile. It was

thought that the missile might have

disintegrated in flight. An Athena program

official said, “We don’t know what happened

to the second missile [17].

Imagine the consternation of individuals

driving along on Highway 54 south of

Alamogordo who suddenly came upon an

airplane sitting on the highway. This was the

case on Wednesday, August 11, 1965 when an

Army U6A single engine craft sat down in the

middle of the highway seventeen miles south of

Alamogordo. The pilot, Harold P. Wheeler of

Alamogordo, experienced an illuminated

warning light and elected to land on the

highway. A mechanic was dispatched from

White Sands Missile Range to check out the

aircraft and resolved the problem. After the

problem was resolved, State Highway

Patrolman Don Schultz held up traffic and

Wheeler took off and returned to Holloman

with no further problem [18].

During the summer of 1965 the Army spent

time, money and labor searching for the

Pershing missile that went AWOL (Absent

Without Leave) in November 1964. A search

by helicopters from Fort Carson in late June

brought no results. Thus, a large-scale ground

and air search was scheduled for August. This

search included sending a seventeen-man team

into the Creede, Colorado area in August. This

team included twelve soldiers riding horseback

combing the hills around Miners Creek west of

McKenzie Mountain. Included in the search

party was an aerial support team of a

helicopter, pilots, and mechanics.

A Pershing Missile (photo credit: U.S.

Army)

The Army had offered a reward of $500 for the

recovery of major portions of the missile, but

no one came forward to present any missile

parts and claim the prize. The reward period

was extended until September 30. At that

point, the Army had spent about $12,500 on

search efforts and the August search was

expected to add $23,000 to the cost [19]. The

missing missile was uncovered only in October

of 1965, when graduate geology student

Maurice Chaffee, of Tucson, Arizona, reported

that he had found pieces of it. The location of

the wreckage was twelve miles northwest of

Creede. White Sands officials said that he

would receive the $500 reward [20], [21].

A wayward balloon held up traffic on Highway

70 west of Alamogordo on Tuesday August 24,

1965. The parachute carrying a balloon and

700-pound payload drifted across power lines

and the roadway. It briefly stopped traffic until

5

crews from Community Public Service and

from Holloman removed the offending

equipment. A State Highway Patrolman

controlled traffic during the equipment removal

process [22]. On Wednesday, the 25 of August

1965, the White Sands Missile Range policy of

having a roadblock when missile launches

cross over Highway 70 appeared to pay off; a

Hawk anti-aircraft missile had been aimed at its

target, a drone aircraft, but instead it would

slam into the highway. This afternoon launch

damaged part of the pavement; a road repair

crew was dispatched to the area and traffic flow

was resumed in a few hours [23].

A HAWK being fired (photo credit: U.S.

Army)

A B-47 from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

in Ohio crashed on take-off at Holloman AFB

at 1:04 p.m. on December 29, 1965. The

airplane was flying a radar target mission in

support of an F-106 project at the base [24].

The next day the newspaper article indicated

that the aircraft had crashed on the overrun area

on Runway 33 and the wreckage had caught

fire. There was no indication of trouble before

the crash. Both pilots aboard the airplane were

killed. A board of officers was appointed to

investigate the crash [25].

George H. Reis, a pilot from Shakopee,

Minnesota, crashed his Aeronca Chief between

Ruidoso and Apache Summit, in Lincoln

County, on Saturday, April 30, 1966. The

plane was flying west above Highway U.S. 70

when it hit huge fir trees on a steep

embankment. Reis said that his altimeter had

stuck at 4,000 feet and he did not realize the

height of the mountains in the area. A passing

motorist from Tularosa, Ansel Austin, managed

to tie the aircraft to nearby trees, thereby

keeping it from topping down the embankment.

A trio of passing truck drivers rushed to the

scene and managed to saw the pilot out of the

plane. He was taken to the Ruidoso-Hondo

Hospital with a fractured leg and facial injuries

[26].

An Aeronca Chief

6

References Cited

[1] Alamogordo Daily News, December 01, 1964, page 1.

[2] Alamogordo Daily News, December 03, 1964, page 1; White Sands Missile Ranger, May

2010, Page 3.

[3] Alamogordo Daily News, February 04, 1965, page 1.

[4] Alamogordo Daily News, February 17, 1965, page 1.

[5] Alamogordo Daily News, April 09, 1965, page 1.

[6] Alamogordo Daily News, April 14, 1965, page 1.

[7] Alamogordo Daily News, April 15, 1965, page 1.

[8] Alamogordo Daily News, April 19, 1965, page 1.

[9] Alamogordo Daily News, April 28, 1965, page 1.

[10] Alamogordo Daily News, May 19, 1965, page 1.

[11] Alamogordo Daily News, May 27, 1965, page 1.

[12] Alamogordo Daily News, May 28, 1965, page 2.

[13] Alamogordo Daily News, June 17, 1965, page 1.

[14] Alamogordo Daily News, June 22, 1965, page 1.

[15] Alamogordo Daily News, July 19, 1965, page 1.

[16] Alamogordo Daily News, July 27, 1965, page 6.

[17] Alamogordo Daily News, August 08, 1965, page 1.

[18] Alamogordo Daily News, August 12, 1965, page 1.

[19] Alamogordo Daily News, August 02, 1965, page 1.

[20] Alamogordo Daily News, October 02, 1965, page 6.

[21] Alamogordo Daily News, October 04, 1965, page 6.

[22] Alamogordo Daily News, August 26, 1965, page 10.

[23] Alamogordo Daily News, August 26, 1965, page 6.

[24] Alamogordo Daily News, December 29, 1965, page 1.

[25] Alamogordo Daily News, December 30, 1965, page 1.

[26] Alamogordo Daily News, May 01, 1966, page 1.

7

INTRODUCTION, ASTRONOMERS BEFORE TELESCOPES: THE

TRIUMPH OF EUROPE (c. 1500-1652)

The first years of the sixteenth century were

the dawn of a new era, the ‘Age of Europe.’

This was due to a number of events. Some

of the more important were:

1) The discovery of the Americas by

Spain in the year 1492; this provided

new foodstuffs that helped to spur

rapid population growth in Europe.

2) The opening of a new trade route by

the Portuguese in 1496; it went south

of the Cape of Good Hope at the tip

of Africa and then north and east, to

India and the Orient. This not only

helped Europe it hurt Muslim states

that had control of the old routes.

3) The invention of the movable type

printing press in 1450, in Germany;

this led to an increase in science and

education in the west of Europe.

4) Technological advances in Europe.

These ranged from navigation and

shipbuilding to new methods in

metallurgy and weaponry.

The rise of Europe was not a given; in the

year 1500, China was by far the richest

country in the world. The greatest cities

were there, as well as in India and in Muslim

realms. The most advanced school of math

in the world was in Kerala, in the south of

India. The Muslim Ottoman Turks were the

most aggressive state of the Old World.

This was due for the most part to their army;

the largest in the West, it was advancing on

its foes in both Europe and Asia.

Western Europe was fractured, with constant

warfare between England, France, Spain,

and a host of other countries. There were an

estimated 57 million people in the west of

Europe at the time; this was just thirteen

percent of the population of the world.

Despite all of this, in less than 150 years

Western Europe would be all but supreme

from one end of the globe to the other.

The political fragmentation of Europe was

reflected in its religious disunity. This grew

much worse as well in 1517; that year,

Martin Luther, a German monk, began the

Reformation. He wrote that personal

salvation did not depend on the Catholic

Church and its hierarchy. He was reacting

for the most part to the growing corruption

of the Church.

This was all too clear to most people, due to

the low state of the Papacy in this era.

Popes had varied from sybaritic libertines

such as Alexander VI, the ‘Borgia’ pope, to

true warrior pontiffs such as Julius II. Most

of them were patrons of the arts; none of

them could be called real ‘men of God.’

Europe in 1500 (Courtesy of: © 2010

Christos Nussli, www euratlas.com)

By the time of Luther, the Church was more

of a temporal than a sacred power. He had

been exposed to its venality more than most

Christians would be, due to its heavy

8

presence in Germany. Germany was the

core of the Holy Roman Empire. This was

not a unified state; it was a collection of

independent principalities, kingdoms, and

duchies. There was little internal cohesion

in it at most times. The Church owned

much of this patchwork of states; its taxes

were often higher than were those in the rest

of the Empire.

The princes of Germany, for the most part in

the north of the country, had long chafed

under the hand of Rome. Many of them

found Luther’s religious objections to the

Church a perfect excuse to rebel. Seven

years after he had challenged the pope, they

formed a defensive league due to attacks by

Catholics. This began more than two

centuries of war between the two faiths.

Soon, they had divided Europe between

them: Protestants ruled England, Holland,

Switzerland, the north of Germany, and

Scandinavia. Catholics controlled most of

the rest of the continent; the main exceptions

to this were Eastern Orthodox Russia as well

as the Balkans, where the Turks held sway.

Luther defends himself before Charles V

In light of all of these facts, the dominance

that Western Europe had in much of the

globe by 1650 is more than remarkable. The

only real powers in the world that were still

free of Europe by then were Turkey, China,

and the Mughal Empire. Western Europe

was able to control much of the Earth at the

same time that religious and dynastic wars

kept the continent in a state of turmoil.

As the sixteenth century dawned, the

strongest European realm was Catholic

Spain; this was the start of its Golden Age.

The riches of the ‘Indies,’ (the Americas)

fueled it. Soon, tons of silver and gold from

there would go to Spain in the annual

Treasure Fleet. By the year 1550 Spain was

at its height; it controlled much of the New

World as well as most of Italy and what are

now Belgium and the Netherlands. When

the King of Portugal died 30 years later,

Spain took over his realm and all of its

colonies.

Charles V (1501-1559) was the first of the

Habsburgs to be King of Spain; he was just

the latest of that Austrian dynasty who had

served as head of the Holy Roman Empire.

When he stepped down from both of his

thrones three years before his death, he left

that realm to his brother, Ferdinand I; thus,

the Habsburgs still ruled much of Europe.

From the time of Charles V on, the kings of

Spain saw themselves as ‘Defenders of the

Faith’; this was not just against threats by

the Turks. He viewed the Protestants in the

same light; they were heretics. In the year

1568, this spirit helped start what is now

known as the Eighty Years’ War. Phillip II,

the son of Charles V and the new King of

Spain, tried to end the scourge of heresy in

Holland and the north of Belgium by

terrorizing the Protestants there back into the

arms of the Church. If the Dutch had not

flooded much of their own land, the

Spaniards would have soon won.

By the fifth year of the war, the rebels still

held a few towns on the North Sea coast;

their ships controlled the sea there as well.

The Dutch then counterattacked Spain; this

was not on land, but on the high seas. In the

9

year 1585, England joined them; it was at

war with Spain for the next two decades.

Privateers from both countries (called

pirates by the Spaniards) swarmed the seas

between Spain and America. The Treasure

Fleet of 1602 fell to the Dutch; Spain went

bankrupt five years later. This was not for

the first time; it had declared bankruptcy in

the years 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1596. Each

of these times, it had brought down much of

the banking system of Europe with it.

Spain’s economy had been wrecked long

before the initial default. The riches that

poured in from Mexico and Peru had led to

inflation that ruined the Spanish middle

class; it did not recover in full until the latter

half of the twentieth century. As with all

empires, Spain would have to invest more

men and funds into its conquests than it had;

all the while, its home economy declined.

Spain could still dominate much of Europe

due to its income from America; this was

despite its disastrous wars with both the

English and the Dutch. By the end of the

Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), its army,

which had been the best in Europe, had been

all but wiped out; it too was never the same.

In less than 50 years, Spain was no more

than a minor power on the world stage.

Much of this turbulent time is reflected in

the lives of the astronomers who lived in it.

In its early years, men in both Spain and

Portugal were leaders in science and math.

Pedro Nunes, Jerome Munoz, and Martin de

Albacar were just three of these.

Nunes was a premier mathematician of his

day. Munoz was one of the first men in the

West to say that the planets, the Sun, and the

Moon all move of their own power; de

Albacar was the first in the Christian world

to identify the magnetic pole. This was the

height of astronomy in both lands; soon, the

best work in the field would be done in

Denmark, Germany, Italy, and England.

The Reformation would affect scholars who

lived in the same years as these three; one of

them was Peter Ramus, of France. He lived

at the start of the ‘Wars of Religion’ (nine of

them) that racked his homeland in the years

from 1562 to 1593. In 1565, he converted to

Protestantism; mobs burned down his home

and library at this news. In three years, he

fled to Germany, but he returned to France

in 1570. Two years later, Ramus was one of

thousands of French Protestants killed in the

Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572

In England, the religious strife of this era

caught up Leonard Digges, whom some

sources say built the first telescope. He took

part in a failed plot against ‘Bloody’ Mary,

the Catholic Queen; he had opposed her

marriage to Phillip II of Spain. She spared

his life, but he was ruined. He would soon

die.

One of the greatest scientists of the sixteenth

century was not a European: He was a

Syrian named Taqi al-Din. Known today as

the ‘last great scientist of the Muslim

world,’ his inventions brought him renown.

One of these was the first clock that had a

second hand; it was the earliest timepiece

that could be used for astronomy.

10

Taqi was the Head Astronomer for two

Ottoman sultans. The second of these rulers

built an observatory for him in Istanbul; it

has been called the most advanced one in

history at that time. In less than three years,

the same sultan had it razed. He destroyed

all of Taqi’s creations in it as well; these

included one of the first telescopes. Taqi

had said that a comet that year, 1580, was a

good omen for the Turks; instead, the

Empire was beset by disasters. Due to this,

the Turks cast aside him and his science.

This was the end of modern science and

math in the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of

years. This was similar to the death of

science in Central Asia more than a century

earlier (see Curation Paper Number Four).

Thus, the Muslim world fell far behind as

Europe reached new heights in technology.

One of the few of Taqi’s day whose work in

astronomy was the equal of his was William

IV. He was the Prince of Hesse-Kassel; it

was a small state in Germany. He too built a

modern observatory; it had the first rotating

dome in the world. He and his father were

leaders of the Protestant cause.

One sign of the discord in Western Europe

at this time was that Protestant astronomers

such as William IV were more likely to

embrace the model published by Copernicus

in 1543. The Pole, who had dedicated his

work to the pope, had said that the Earth

orbits the Sun; few in Catholic lands would

write in support of this for two centuries.

Another sign was the calendar. By the year

1580, the Julian calendar that had been used

by all of Christian Europe had an error of

ten days. Pope Gregory XIII formed a team

to deal with the problem. In two years, they

wrote the calendar that is used by most of

the world today; they named it for the pope.

The Gregorian calendar was the best yet in

Christian Europe; still, it was rejected by

most of the Protestant world. This was for

the most part due to its origin.

The most renowned astronomer of the

sixteenth century was a Danish nobleman

named Tycho Brahe. He is hailed as the

most precise observer before the telescope.

Like most scientists in Protestant lands, he

thought that the Earth moved, and not the

Sun; his view would change after he studied

the orbits of comets. This led him to write

what is known as the ‘Tychonic’ model; it is

the same as one written 87 years earlier, in

the Kerala School. He said that the five

planets as well as comets all circle the Sun.

The Sun, the stars, and the Moon, he wrote,

all orbit the Earth. As Copernicus had

shown that the Earth-centered view of the

Bible to be false, the Church would adopt

the Tychonic model, many in the Protestant

world did also.

Tycho Brahe (note prosthetic nose)

Tycho built two observatories on the isle of

Hven; both of them were more modern than

any that came before. He worked there from

the years 1580 to 1597; he built a printing

press and paper mill there as well. The first,

and larger, observatory has been called the

‘first modern research center.’ It was there

11

that he would calculate the length of the year

to within half a second; this was the best

estimate of it yet, at the time. Much of the

work that he did at Hven was without equal.

He benefited from having the King of

Denmark as a patron. When a new king

would not help Tycho, he moved to Prague.

Uraniborg, Tycho’s first observatory

The city was the capital of the Holy Roman

Emperor; he was a Habsburg named

Rudolph II. He was a noted eccentric and

mystic. He built an observatory for Tycho;

the Dane would do some of his best work

there. One of his assistants in Prague was

Johannes Kepler; he wrote of Tycho’s

ghastly death there, in 1601. He said that

his employer had died from a burst bladder.

Doctors at the time said that he died of

kidney stones. Research points to mercury

poisoning as the true cause of death; if so, it

was most likely accidental. Tycho was an

alchemist; as mercury was a staple of that

field, he had long used it. As he was dying,

he may have taken it as a cure for his kidney

ailments.

Two Englishmen contributed to the growth

of astronomy in these years; the first was

William Gilbert. In the year 1600, he

discovered the magnetic field of the Earth.

He was also the first to write that the Earth’s

core is made of iron. He was a supporter of

the model that the Earth orbits the Sun.

The second one was Thomas Digges; he was

the eldest son of Leonard. He was one of

the first in a Christian land to write that the

Sun was the same as the stars. He was as

well one of the first men to say that the stars

were scattered across the heavens. Most in

the West at this time thought that the stars

were fixed to a ‘stellar sphere’ near Saturn.

One of the few Catholics that wrote in favor

of the model of heliocentrism was Matteo

Ricci. He was an Italian Jesuit; he spent

most of his life as a missionary, first in the

south of India, and then in China. He was

the first European to reach the Forbidden

City; this was the domain of the emperors of

China. His knowledge of astronomy and

math won him converts there as well as in

much of the rest of the country. He was the

first in that land to teach modern

trigonometry. He also had the first accurate

world map ever seen there.

The greatest astronomer of the last years of

this era was a German named Johannes

Kepler. Much of his life was ruled by some

of the events that kept Europe in a state of

turmoil. His father was a mercenary who

disappeared when Johannes was a young

child; he may have died in battle in Holland,

but his son would write that he and his

mother had been abandoned. She raised him

in her parents’ tavern. Poor health and

money problems plagued him for all of his

life.

As a young professor, he wrote one of the

first defenses of Copernicus’ model; this

brought him to the attention of Tycho Brahe,

who invited him to Prague. With Tycho’s

death, Kepler took his job; he claimed the

Dane’s notes from more than twenty years’

12

of research as well. Kepler fought with

Tycho’s heirs for years over these in court.

He would lose in the end, but by then he had

used the data to disprove the Tychonic

model. He also used the notes to write the

first two of his Laws of Planetary Motion.

In 1612, Rudolph II was overthrown. His

odd beliefs, as well as The ‘Long War’ had

helped to cause his downfall; this was an

indecisive struggle with the Turks. They

had conquered most of Hungary a century

earlier; the Ottomans had been a threat to the

Empire since then. Due to the taxes he had

raised to pay for the war, Rudolph lost the

support of the Czech Protestants; his brother

Matthias, with their help, deposed him.

Matthias soon revoked the religious freedom

that Rudolph had granted them just three

years before. This enraged the Czechs; in

the year 1618, they threw two of his

henchmen out of a high window in Prague.

The pair landed in a moat filled with dried

manure; both of them would live. This is

known as the ‘Defenestration of Prague’; it

was the start of the Thirty Years’ War.

Matthias died the next year; a cousin of his

was crowned as the new emperor, Ferdinand

III. He set out to kill or convert all

Protestants in his lands. He worked with the

Habsburgs of Spain in pursuit of that goal.

The Defenestration of Prague

In one of his first acts, Matthias had ordered

that all of those in his court had to be a

Catholic. Kepler would not convert; for

this, he had to leave Prague in 1612. He

went to the city of Linz; while he was there,

he continued to work for the new emperor.

Seven years later, he wrote the third, and

last, of his Laws of Planetary Motion; in

1627, he published the Rudolphine Tables.

Both works played a key role in the triumph

of the heliocentric model.

Kepler had helped to start a new age in both

science and math; this was in the face of the

travails of his life. He married twice, the

first time was for money; the second one

was for love. He outlived both of his wives

as well as six of his eleven children. From

the year 1615 on, he had to spend six years

to defend his aged mother from charges of

witchcraft.

In need of funds, he was an astrologer for

first a duke, and then a general in the Thirty

Years’ War. In the midst of that conflict, he

made a long journey to collect money from

the duke. He died on the way home; in six

years, his grave, and all traces of it were

destroyed in the war.

The Thirty Years’ War would lay much

more than this to waste; it was the worst

conflict in Europe before World War I.

Disease and famine took most of the eight

million lives that were lost. Most of these

deaths were in Germany. By the end of the

war, the population there and in what is now

the Czech Republic was but half of what it

was at its start.

Ferdinand had crushed the Czechs by 1620;

from then on most of the fighting was in

Germany. Protestants and Catholic princes

there lined up for or against him. Religion

was no longer the prime cause of the war;

from this point on, it was driven by

13

Ferdinand’s bid to rule the Empire in more

than name only. By 1625, he had put his

foes to flight. Just when the Protestant

cause appeared to be lost, the King of

Denmark entered the war. Years before, this

same king had refused to support Tycho

Brahe. The conflict raged on four more

years, until the Danes sued for peace; the

Habsburgs seemed victorious.

France had defeated its own Protestant

rebels in the year 1628; in two years, it

started to pay Protestant armies of other

lands to fight the Catholic emperor. Sweden

was the main power to take the French gold;

after trouncing Ferdinand’s forces from the

north the south of Germany, the Swedes

were routed by them and the Spaniards by

1635. The next year France declared war on

the Habsburgs; the two greatest Catholic

powers in the world were now at war.

By the end of the Thirty Years’ War, most

of the nations of Europe had entered it, some

more than once. Spain had been in it since

the second year of the war. The French

crushed Spain’s army in 1643; France was

the strongest nation in Europe from then on.

Kepler and the first modern telescope

Astronomy had entered its modern period

decades earlier. In January 1610, Galileo

had turned his homemade telescope to the

heavens; he saw the four largest moons of

Jupiter. By the end of that year, he had

discovered that Venus has phases just like

those of Earth’s moon. Both of these finds,

he wrote, showed that the model that the

Earth circles the Sun was in fact, the truth.

Kepler soon heard of Galileo’s work; he

then built the first modern telescope. He

would make key discoveries with it.

As telescopes remade astronomy in Europe,

the study of the sky with the naked eye

would go on in much of Asia for three more

centuries. Primitive groups did not do this;

scientists in China, India, and elsewhere

worked without the use of telescopes. One

of these was Jai Singh; he was a Hindu

prince. In the first part of the eighteenth

century, he built five open-air observatories;

four of them still exist. Two still function.

Part of Jai Singh’s observatory at Delhi

(photo credit: J. Winzer)

Samanta Chandrasekhar was the last man

who won fame in astronomy for his work

without telescopes; he died in the year 1904.

A Hindu, he earned honors in Europe for his

prediction of a transit by the planet Venus.

His death was the end of more than 4700

years of traditional astronomy in the Old

World. In that time, the science had made

tremendous gains. The ingenuity and

insights of the pioneers of astronomy is an

eternal testament to spirit of humanity and

the ceaseless search for knowledge, beyond

the bounds of Earth, to the stars themselves.

14

THE TRIUMPH OF EUROPE (c. 1500-1652)

Jyesthadeva (c. 1500-c. 1575) was a

Hindu mathematician and astronomer; he

wrote of planetary orbits and eclipses.

He improved on the geoheliocentric

model that his teacher, Nilakantha

Somayaji, had written in the year 1501.

It said that the five planets orbit the Sun.

The Sun and the rest of the universe

circle the Earth. This was similar to what

Tycho Brahe would write 87 years later.

Sankara Variyar (c. 1500-c. 1560?) was

a Hindu astronomer and mathematician;

Jyesthadeva was his mentor. He

modified his teacher’s planetary theories;

they both taught at the Kerala School.

Mustafa ibn Ali (died 1571) was a

Turkish astronomer-astrologer and

geographer; he was the author of tracts on

spherical trigonometry. He wrote of

astrolabic quadrants as well as other tools

that were used to view the heavens. He

had astronomical data for more than 100

cities from China to Morocco; he penned

other texts and tables on astronomy. For

most of his work, he used data from

Ulugh Beg.

Ibn Ali wrote in Turkish; he hoped to

make it one of the languages of science in

the Muslim world, as were Arabic and

Persian. For the last eleven years of his

life, he was the Head Astronomer at the

Ottoman court.

Pedro Nunes (1502-1578) was a

Portuguese mapmaker; he was the most

honored mathematician of his day. His

writings on celestial navigation were the

best yet, at the time. His parents had

converted from Judaism; his

grandchildren would be jailed on the

charge that they had observed Jewish

practices in secret. Nunes entered the

University of Lisbon at the age of fifteen;

he was the Royal Cosmographer by the

time he was twenty-two. He taught at the

University of Lisbon for years; Clavius

was one of his students there.

Statue of Pedro Nunes in Lisbon,

Portugal (photo credit: Alvesgaspar)

Nunes built tools for use in astronomy;

he improved on the astrolabe. He

translated texts by Sacrobosco and

Peurbach to Portuguese. He wrote solar

tables; he rejected Copernicus’ model

that the Earth and the rest of the planets

orbit the Sun. The pope had him review

proposals for reforming the Julian

calendar; Nunes said that some problems

with calendars could not be solved.

Pietro Pitati (fl. 1537-1556) was an

astronomer and mathematician from

Italy. He wrote tables as well as

almanacs and other books; he urged

calendar reform. He was one of those

who taught Padovani.

15

James Bassantin (c. 1504-1568) was an

astrologer-astronomer from Scotland; he

published a book that had movable

diagrams to show how the Sun, the

Moon, and the planets all orbit the Earth.

He was an expert with astrolabes; he

wrote of their use.

Tang Shunzhi (1506-1560) was a

Chinese politician and astronomer; he

revived Muslim astronomy and math in

that land. He used trigonometry to revise

and update the Chinese Islamic calendar.

Ganesa (1507-after 1564) was a Hindu

astronomer-astrologer; his two brothers

were as well. Their father, Kesava, had

taught them. At the age of thirteen,

Ganesa wrote a key astronomy text. At

eighteen, he wrote a book of lunar tables.

He was the author of more than a dozen

tracts on astronomy; one of them was on

the works of Bhaskara II. He also wrote

of how to create calendars. He founded a

school of astronomy. It was one of five

in India; it would be most popular in the

north and west of that country.

Mulla Chand (fl. 1542) was a Muslim;

he was the Court Astronomer-Astrologer

for Humayun. He had been trained in

Samarkand. He wrote tables that were

based on the work there by Ulugh Beg.

Gemma Frisius (1508-1555) was a

Dutch mathematician and instrument-

maker; his real name was Jemme

Reinerszoon. He came from the region

of Friesland; he was one of the scholars

from Europe in this era who took a Latin

version of his birthplace for his name.

He is most noted as the first man to use

triangulation in surveying.

Frisius graduated from the University of

Louvain. He then worked there for

decades; he taught John Dee and

Johannes Stadius. He set up a workshop

in the town of Louvain. He won fame for

his precise instruments; one of these was

an astrolabe. He built the first type of

pocket-sized armillary spheres; they were

used as late as the eighteenth century.

Tycho Brahe was one of those who

praised his work.

A celestial globe built by Gemma

Frisius in 1537

Frisius studied comets; he used data from

both Apianus and Copernicus to write

tables. He was the first man to try to use

clocks to find longitude. This idea,

though unworkable in his day, has been

the accepted method since the year 1780;

that was when clocks that were precise

enough for this purpose were invented.

Gemma Frisius was a defender of

astrology. He was the personal doctor to

Charles V as well; for years, this

monarch supported him. Near the end of

his life, Frisius came out in strong

support of Copernicus’ model that the

Earth moves and not the Sun. He had

been writing a book on universal

astrolabes when he died of ‘stones’; his

eldest son, Cornelius Gemma, finished it.

16

Gemma Frisius

Humayun (1508-1556) was the second

Mughal emperor. He was an avid

amateur astronomer-astrologer; he was as

well a noted drunk. He built

observatories; he designed an astrolabe.

He fell to his death while waiting to

observe the planet Venus. Alcohol is

thought to have been a factor.

The Mughal Emperor Humayun

Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578)

was an Italian archbishop and playwright;

he was also a poet and a mathematical

astronomer. A graduate of the University

of Padua, he was born wealthy. He was a

champion of calendar reform. He wrote

key texts; one of these was the first book

of star charts to be printed by a machine.

It had maps of all but one of the 48

constellations that Ptolemy had used. It

was the earliest known atlas to have

diagrams that showed the stars, and not

the mythological figures. The first block

(hand)-printed star atlas had been done in

China more than five centuries earlier.

Piccolomini was one of the first in the

west of Europe to write works of

astronomy in a language other than Latin;

he used Italian. He was the first man to

designate the stars with Latin letters; he

assigned an ‘a’ to the brightest stars. He

penned a defense of Ptolemy’s

astronomy. In it, he rejected the model

by Copernicus; it said that the Earth

orbits the Sun, as do all the planets.

Muslih al-Din al-Lari (c. 1510-1572)

was a Persian mathematician; he was the

main astronomer for Humayun. He

wrote of the Almagest, as well as on

some of the work done by both Ali Kuscu

and al-Tusi. He moved to the Ottoman

Empire after the death of his patron.

Aloysius Lilius (c. 1510-1576) was an

Italian doctor and astronomer. In 1582,

his data from watching the sky, as well as

his thoughts on calendar change, would

be used by the ‘Reform Commission’;

they wrote the Gregorian calendar.

Robert Recorde (c. 1510-1558) was an

English (or Welsh) mathematician and

doctor. He was the first man to use the

equal sign (=). He taught Ptolemy’s

model of geocentrism at Oxford for

years; he was the first man to teach

algebra in Britain. He was as well the

first to publish books on astronomy and

math in English. Some of his work

17

would be the best in those fields in that

tongue for decades.

He wrote favorably on Copernicus’

model, but he did not explicitly support

it. He offended powerful figures at court;

he was found guilty of libel against one

of them. His innocence did not save him;

he died after a few weeks in debtor’s

prison.

Robert Recorde at work

Martin Cortes de Albacar (1510-1582)

was a Spanish cosmographer and

mapmaker. He was the first man in

Europe to identify the magnetic pole, but

he did not grasp the full concept of true

north. He wrote on the construction and

use of astrolabes; he rejected the model

of heliocentrism. His books were crucial

to the growth of navigation; they were

copied for decades.

Erasmus Reinhold (1511-1553) was a

German astronomer and mathematician;

he was one of the many noted graduates

of the University of Wittenberg in this

era. He rejected the model by

Copernicus; he did use data from the Pole

to write the Prutenic Tables. This led to

many of those who used the tables

accepting the idea that the Earth orbits

the Sun. His work replaced the Alfonsine

Tables as the most popular astronomical

tables in Europe. In 1627, the

Rudolphine Tables that Kepler had

written would in turn supplant them. In

his day, most saw Reinhold as the best

astronomer in the Protestant states of

Germany.

Giovanni Padovani (born c. 1512) was

an Italian mathematician and astronomer;

he published a book on horizontal as well

as vertical sundials. In it, he gave

directions on how to correct both types

for the effects of change in latitude.

Cyprian Lvovicky (1514?-1574) was a

Czech astrologer-astronomer; he tried to

make astrology a true science. He

combined it with math and pure

astronomy. He used data from both the

Prutenic and Alfonsine Tables to write

his own tables. He did this for the Holy

Roman Emperor, Rudolph II. Tycho

Brahe wrote in praise of his tables; the

two would correspond.

Rheticus (1514-1574) was an Austrian

scholar; he was Copernicus’ only student.

He was born Georg Iserin; when he was

fourteen he changed his name to von

Lauchen after the beheading of his father.

Most sources say that this was for

sorcery; a few claim that his father, who

was a doctor, had been stealing from his

patients.

As an adult, the son took the name

Rheticus. This came from ‘Rhaetia’; it

was the name of his part of Austria at the

time of the Roman Empire. He graduated

from the University of Wittenberg; he

then taught there. He next worked at the

University of Leipzig; in 1539, he went

to Poland, to meet Copernicus.

He worked for the Pole for the next two

years; he was his only student. In 1540,

18

Rheticus published his teacher’s notes in

a booklet that he had named Narratio; he

took the lead in publishing the rest of

Copernicus’ work. He wrote that it

would have remained unknown without

his efforts.

For the last twenty years of his life,

Rheticus worked as a doctor in Krakow.

He built tools for astronomy; he was as

well an alchemist. He was the first writer

to base his work on the model of

heliocentrism by Copernicus. He wrote

trigonometric tables that were so precise

they were used as late as the twentieth

century. In the year 1562, he left the

Catholic Church; he became a Protestant.

Rheticus

Peter Ramus (1515-1572) was a French

mathematician; he was born as Pierre de

la Ramee. He used advanced techniques

in math for astronomy. He did not object

to Copernicus’ model that the Earth

orbits the Sun; he stressed observation

over dogma. The University of Paris

banned him for years; this was due to his

fierce attacks on the works of Aristotle.

He would return; he taught there for

decades. Kepler would cite his work.

Peter Ramus

Mobs burned both his home and library

when he converted to Protestantism in the

year 1565. In three years, Ramus fled

France due to the persecution there. For

two years, he lived in Germany and then

Switzerland. He returned to France in

1570, only to die in two years, in the

Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

Juan de Rojas (fl. 1550) was a Spanish

mathematician and astronomer; he was

taught by Gemma Frisius. He built the

first universal astrolabe that was based on

orthographic projection.

Ignatius Ni’meh Allah I (died 1587)

was a Syrian Orthodox Patriarch; in

Europe, he was known as Nehemias. The

Turks had forced him to convert to Islam;

he had first been accused of being an

atheist. His own church then deposed

him, as he had not died for his faith. He

had to flee to Italy in the year 1578; he

then worked in Rome for the pope.

He helped to write the Gregorian

calendar; he had 764 years of

astronomical records from the Middle

East with him when he came west. These

were from both Christian and Muslim

sources; he used data by Omar Khayyam

19

the most. As a member of the Reform

Commission, he relied on them to back

up his view of what should be done to

improve the calendar.

Ni’meh could compute the length of the

tropical year to within eight and half

seconds; this was the best estimate of it

yet at that time in the Christian world.

The pope did not use his data; the

Gregorian calendar would be accurate to

just 26 seconds. His work was not

released by the Church for 301 years.

A possible portrait of Patriarch

Ignatius Ni’meh Allah I

Moses Almosnino (1518-c. 1585) was a

Turkish rabbi; he wrote on some of the

books by Sacrobosco and Peurbach. He

penned a description of astrolabes. He

founded schools in Turkey; he taught

only theories that said that the Sun orbits

the Earth.

Johannes Humelius (1518-1562) was a

German mapmaker and astronomer; he

observed planetary motions. He rejected

Copernicus’ model that the Earth was in

constant motion, and not the Sun. He

taught Scultetus; his work influenced the

writing of Tycho Brahe.

Fathullah Shirazi (died 1589) was a

Persian scientist; he was the main

astronomer for the Mughal Emperor,

Akbar. He wrote the Bengali calendar

for Akbar; it is still used, in a revised

form, in Bangladesh as well as in much

of the east of India.

Leonard Digges (c. 1520-1559) was an

English mathematician; he published the

first perpetual calendar that was done in

English instead of Latin. He based it on

the model written long before by

Ptolemy. Some sources say that he built

the first telescope. He used it only as a

tool for survey; he did not view the

heavens with it. He did invent the

theodolite.

He took part in a failed plot against

Queen Mary; his life was spared, but he

lost all of his property as well as his

standing. He fought to recover both for

the rest of his life, but it would be in vain.

His son, Thomas, rewrote three of his

four principal works.

Jerome Munoz (1520-1591) was a

Spanish astronomer and engineer.

Oronce Fine and Gemma Frisius had both

trained him. He shared data on the 1572

supernova with both Hajek and Frisius.

He said that the new star showed that

Aristotle was wrong; the heavens were

not ‘perfect and unchanging.’ He

mapped the stars with precision. He

wrote that there were no crystalline

spheres powering the planets, the Sun,

the Moon, or the stars; he said that they

all moved around the Earth on their own.

Thomas Blundeville (c. 1522-1602) was

an English scholar; he invented the

protractor. He was a prolific writer on

many subjects. At the age of 79, he

wrote a book on the discovery of the

20

Earth’s magnetic field by Gilbert; in it, he

wrote of how magnetism might relate to

astronomy. He penned attacks on the

model of heliocentrism by Copernicus.

Francesco Giuntini (1523-1590) was an

Italian astronomer; he wrote of the two

books by Sacrobosco. He was the author

of texts on the comet of 1577, as well as

on other issues in astronomy. He was in

favor of reforming the Julian calendar.

Valentinus Naiboda (1523-1593) was a

German mathematician and astrologer;

his real name was Valentin Naboth. In

1573, he wrote a textbook that had all

three models of the Solar System. These

were the Ptolemaic and Copernican, and

the geoheliocentric one by Capella. A

diagram of the last one influenced Tycho

Brahe and, most likely, Paul Wittich.

Naiboda decided that he should stay in

his house after a horoscope that he had

cast said that he would die soon; robbers

would kill him in his home.

The Capellan model (Naiboda 1573)

Tadeas Hajek (1525-1600) was a Czech

astronomer-astrologer; he was also an

alchemist. He was a graduate of both the

universities of Prague and Wittenberg; he

worked at the latter for years. He was a

doctor to Rudolph II, the Holy Roman

Emperor; he had worked for his

predecessor as well.

In that role, he helped Tycho Brahe to get

the job of Imperial Mathematician. He

gave advice to the Emperor on the reform

of the Julian calendar. Hajek was a

skilled observer. He supported the model

by Copernicus that said that the Earth

orbits the Sun. He shared data on comets

and the 1572 supernova with Tycho

Brahe and others.

Caspar Peucer (1525-1602) was a

German theologian and doctor. He was a

mathematician as well; both Reinhold

and Rheticus had trained him in that

field. He shared his notes on the comet

of 1572 with Tycho Brahe and William

IV. The Prince of Saxony imprisoned

him for twelve years for being a ‘Crypto-

Calvinist’; he had been both doctor and

counselor to the prince.

Taqi al-Din (c. 1526-1585) was a Syrian

scientist and engineer; he was also an

astrologer. Fathullah al-Sufi had trained

him, in Egypt; Taqi worked there for the

next two decades. In that time, he

invented advanced machines; one of them

was the first steam turbine.

He built the first clock in the world that

had a second hand; he had designed it to

help measure the right ascension of stars.

It would be more than a century before

clocks in Christian Europe were this

precise. His device was the first

timepiece that was accurate enough for

astronomy. He used it to make

observations of the sky that were at the

time unrivalled in their precision.

Some sources say that the star catalogs

that he wrote were comparable to the one

21

done by Tycho Brahe. The claim is that

the research that Taqi did on solar

eccentricity was as good as the study of it

done by Tycho and better than the work

on it by Copernicus. The same, it is

said, is true of his work on the solar

apogee. In the year 1570, he moved to

Istanbul, to the court of the Ottoman

Sultan, Selim II; he was also known as

‘Selim the Sot.’ The next year Selim

made him his Head Astronomer.

Taqi al-Din

The research done by Ulugh Beg and his

team at the Samarkand Observatory had

influenced Taqi from his youth. He

wanted to surpass their feats (see

Curation Paper Number Four). He

convinced a new sultan to build an

observatory in Istanbul; it was the most

modern in the world at the time. It had

an astronomical clock and other devices

he had invented; one of these was one of

the first telescopes. His observatory has

been called the equal of the one built by

Tycho Brahe; the same is true for the

tools both men used. The Dane knew of

Taqi and his work.

In 1580, a comet appeared over Istanbul;

Taqi said that it was a favorable omen for

the Turks. Instead, a plague ravaged

much of the Empire. Things got worse

for Taqi when it claimed the life of a

member of the court. Most sources say

that religious factions at court encouraged

a backlash against Taqi and his science.

Others say that he was a victim of

political infighting there. When the

plague still spread, the sultan had the

observatory and all that was in it

destroyed. This did not stop the plague.

The Istanbul Observatory

Taqi al-Din stayed on in Istanbul; he built

new tools until his death in five years.

His disgrace was the end of modern math

and science in Turkey for more than two

centuries; this was true for the rest of the

Middle East as well. He has been called

the ‘last great scientist of the Muslim

world.’

John Dee (1527-1609) was an English

astrologer and mathematician; he was

also an alchemist, a mystic, an

astronomer and a royal counselor. He

graduated from Cambridge, and then the

University of Louvain; Gemma Frisius

was one of his teachers there. Dee

rejected the model that the Earth orbits

22

the Sun. Still, he used data from

Copernicus in a proposal he wrote on

how to reform the Julian calendar; the

pope did not use his ideas.

John Dee

Dee was the Royal Astrologer for Queen

Elizabeth I; in that role, he would train a

generation of navigators on how to chart

the stars. He was her main advisor on

many issues; he was one of the first to

urge that the Queen pursue a policy of

imperialism. When the extent of his

mysticism became well known, he was

ostracized. The new king, James I,

banned him from court; after years at the

pinnacle of power, Dee died in poverty.

Paul Hainzel (1527-1581) was a

Bavarian mayor and astronomer. He and

his brother, with the help of Tycho

Brahe, built a quadrant on his estate near

the city of Augsburg. It had a diameter

of nineteen feet; the three of them used it

to observe the 1572 supernova.

Johannes Stadius (1527-1579) was a

Flemish astrologer and mathematician;

his real name was Jan Van Ostaeyen.

Gemma Frisius had trained him. He

supported the model by Copernicus that

said that the Earth orbits the Sun. He

wrote tables that Tycho Brahe would use.

Andreas Schoner (1528-1590) was a

German mathematician; he built sundials

and what some sources call the ‘first

modern celestial globe.’ It showed all of

the known constellations and stars in

their correct locations. He was the Court

Mathematician to Prince William IV.

Tycho Brahe called him ‘the most

important astronomer in Europe.’ He

published works by his father, Johannes.

Daniel Santbech (fl. 1561) was a Dutch

astronomer and mathematician; he

published texts by Regiomontanus as

well as his own works. Both of them had

written of the tools and practices of

astronomy.

Giovanni Benedetti (1530-1590) was an

Italian scientist and astrologer; he

supported Copernicus’ model that the

Earth was in motion, and not the Sun. He

disagreed with the rest of Aristotle’s

physics as well. He proved that the Earth

rotated. He did this with the same

methods that Aristarchus of Samos had

used; this Greek had lived more than a

thousand years earlier.

Conrad Dasypodius (c. 1532-1600) was

a Swiss mathematician and astronomer;

his last name most likely was Hasenfratz.

He promoted some of Copernicus’ ideas,

but he did not endorse the Pole’s model

that the Earth orbits the Sun. He built a

monumental astronomical clock in a

cathedral, in Strasburg, France; it was the

best clock of its kind, in its day.

William IV of Hesse-Kassel (1532-

1592) was a German prince and

astronomer; he and his father were both

leaders of the Protestant cause. His

23

lifelong interest in astronomy began

when he was a youth; a book by Apianus

had been the spark. He did most of his

work in the field before the death of his

father in 1567; his duties as head of state

would take up much of his time after that.

At his death, his father had split Hesse

among his four sons; as a result, William

ruled only the area of the capital, Kassel.

While he was heir to the throne, he had

made that city a center for science in the

Protestant world; he built an observatory

in his father’s palace there. It was the

first in Christian Europe that had a staff

of professional astronomers; it also had

the first rotating dome in the world. He

designed many of the tools used there.

His work proved that metal instruments

were far superior to those made of wood.

Wood was still used for many tools in

astronomy.

William was one of the first men to write

in support of Copernicus’ model that the

Earth orbits the Sun, as do the five

planets. He was as well one of the first to

say that the nova of 1572 and the comet

of 1585 were both at great distances from

the Earth; this contradicted the views of

both Aristotle and Ptolemy. He was one

of the first men in a Christian land to use

clocks in astronomy; he mapped the stars

with them.

He and his staff wrote two star catalogs.

The second one is known as the Hessian

Star Catalog; it was the earliest star

catalog that was based on a systematic

survey of all of the night sky. He had

written it with Rothmann and Burgi.

Some sources say that it was the best star

catalog in the world, at the time.

The catalog would not be published until

the year 1668; by then, it was obsolete.

At the time of its writing, William was a

rival of Tycho Brahe. It and some of the

other work by the prince and his team

were superior in some ways to that done

by the Dane.

William IV of Hesse-Kassel

Hilderich von Varel (1533-1599) was a

German theologian and astronomer; he

was an advocate of Copernicus’ model.

He was the first man in the west of

Europe to translate tracts on astronomy

by Geminus of Rhodes. This Greek had

lived more than 1700 years earlier.

Cornelius Gemma (1535-1577) was a

Dutch doctor and philosopher; he was

also an astrologer and a mathematician.

He was the eldest son of Gemma Frisius;

he published some of what his father had

been working on at the time of his death.

Gemma taught at the University of

Louvain. He observed eclipses; he wrote

one of the first accounts of the supernova

of 1572. He made the first scientific

record of the aurora borealis. Galileo

wrote that he found his data to be

accurate.

Gemma said that the Prutenic Tables and

the model of heliocentrism that they were

24

taken from matched what he saw in the

heavens. He wrote that they were better

than the Alfonsine Tables and the

geocentric view that they represented.

Still, he rejected the model that the Earth

orbits the Sun, as it contradicted what

was in the Bible. He died of the plague

soon after writing a report on calendar

reform for the pope.

Gemma’s illustration of the aurora

Egnatio Danti (1536-1586) was an

Italian bishop and astronomer; he was, as

well, a noted engineer. His real name

was Carlo Pellegrino; his father had been

called ‘Danti,’ which meant ‘clever.’

The nickname was then passed down to

the son. He won fame as one of the

builders of the best tools for astronomy in

Europe; some of them can still be used.

He built two observatories, both of them

in cathedrals; the first was in the city of

Florence. He lived there for years, until

he had to flee after a coup there. He built

the second one in Rome, for the pope.

Danti helped to refute the theory of

trepidation; this would be for the last

time. In 1574, he had found that the

Julian calendar had an error of ten days.

In six years, Pope Gregory XIII named

him to the Reform Commission. In 1582,

the Gregorian calendar used his estimate

of the tropical year.

Egnatio Danti

Christopher Clavius (1538-1612) was a

Bavarian Jesuit; his birth name may have

been Klau. He graduated from the

University of Coimbra. He then attended

the College of Rome; he worked there for

the rest of his life. He led the team that

the pope formed to write the Gregorian

calendar; it will be accurate until 4317.

He was the author of texts on some of

Sacrobosco’s writings; he wrote of

eclipses as well. He said that the

supernova of 1572 proved that the

heavens were not ‘perfect and

unchanging’ as Aristotle had written. He

rejected the model that the Earth moves

and not the Sun; even so, he had used

Copernicus’ data to write much of the

Gregorian calendar.

Clavius refuted the Pole’s idea that the

rate of precession varied. He was also

correct when he wrote that the length of

the tropical year did not vary; Copernicus

had said that it did. In his years at the

College of Rome, he trained many Jesuits

in the sciences. Ricci was the most noted

of these. Once he had used a telescope,

Clavius would say that the Earth did

indeed orbit the Sun.

25

Christopher Clavius. From a 1606

painting by Francesco Villamena

Giovanni Gallucci (1538-c. 1621) was

an astronomer and translator from Italy.

He lived in Venice for most of his life; it

was a center of publishing at the time. In

1588, he wrote what one source has

called ‘the first modern star atlas.’ It had

the 48 constellations from Ptolemy’s

atlas; that book was more than a thousand

years old. Gallucci showed them on star

maps from a book by Copernicus; these

were more precise than the maps by

Ptolemy. It was the first star atlas to

show nebulae; it was as well the first one

to have reliable coordinates.

A paper astrolabe in a book published

in 1598 by Giovanni Gallucci

Gallucci condemned the practice of

astrology and all other ‘superstitions.’

He said that the comet of 1577 was in

deep space, ‘near Mercury,’ and not in

the atmosphere as per the science of

Aristotle. He wrote of how to build

various types of sundials; he invented

tools for use in astronomy.

Pieter Keyser (1540?-1596) was a Dutch

navigator; Plancius had trained him to be

an astronomer. He mapped 135 stars as

well as twelve constellations; these were

all in the Southern hemisphere. He did

this from the island of Madagascar in the

four months it took to repair his ship

there; he sent the data back to his teacher.

This was on the first voyage by the Dutch

to the Orient. Keyser soon died in

Sumatra, of disease.

Elias Morsing (c. 1540-1590) was a

Danish astronomer; one source says that

he was Tycho Brahe’s ‘most capable’

assistant. He helped to write his boss’

first book; he did research for him, first

in Poland, and then in Germany.

Bartholomaus Scultetus (1540-1614)

was a German astronomer and mayor; his

birth name was Barthel Schulz. He was

the first writer in a Protestant land to use

the Gregorian calendar. He wrote of the

comet of 1577. He studied with Tycho

Brahe; he shared data with him and then,

with Kepler. Scultetus was a skilled

maker of tools. He taught astronomy to

Paul Wittich.

David Gans (1541-1613); this scholar

was a German Jew. He conducted many

observations. He translated a copy of the

Alfonsine Tables from Hebrew to

German for Tycho Brahe; this had been

done for Rudolph II. He worked with

both Tycho and Kepler while they were

26

all in Prague. He said that the Sun

moved, not the Earth.

Rodrigo Zamorano (1542-1623) was a

Spanish astronomer and mathematician;

he used some of Copernicus’ data, but he

did not accept the model that the Earth

orbits the Sun. He wrote several texts on

astronomy.

Metius (c. 1543-1620) was a Dutch

engineer; he was also a mathematician

and an astronomer. His real name was

Adriaan Anthonisz; he changed it to the

Dutch word for ‘surveyor.’ He built a

device to determine the position of the

Moon. He wrote of sundials, astrolabes,

and calendars.

William Gilbert (1544-1603) was a

scientist from England; he was a graduate

of Cambridge. He was the Royal

Physician to both Queen Elizabeth I and

her successor, King James I. He held that

post until his death; this may have been

from the plague.

Gilbert wrote one book, De Magnete. In

it, he described the magnetic field of the

Earth; he had discovered it. He wrote

that it caused the planet’s daily rotation.

He said that the magnetism of the Earth

was the source of gravity. He was the

first man to write that the Earth has a core

of iron. He penned attacks on those who

said that the Earth did not rotate.

Gilbert made one of the first known maps

of the Moon; he wrote that the light spots

on it were bodies of water. Most of his

peers thought that the dark areas were the

Moon’s seas. These came to be known

as ‘Mares’; this is the Latin word for

‘seas.’ He made the first scientific study

of electricity; he said that it was not the

same as magnetism. The experiments

that he did on these forces have been

called ‘the first modern science’ and the

‘foundation of modern physics.’

William Gilbert was a strong supporter of

Copernicus. His work influenced Kepler,

Galileo, and others.

William Gilbert, from De Magnete

Thomas Digges (c. 1545-1595) was an

English astronomer; he was also an army

officer and a politician. He was the first

to translate the works of Copernicus from

Latin to English. He did not go to a

university; still, he was well educated, at

first by his father, Leonard Digges, and

then, after he died, by John Dee. He

raised Thomas as his foster son.

Digges supported Copernicus’s model

that the Earth orbits the Sun, but he

differed with him on the stars: The Pole

had written that the stars were a short

distance beyond Saturn. Digges said that

no, the stars were other suns that were far

from the Earth. Both of them thought

that the Sun was the center of the

universe. He was one of the first to write

that the Sun was the same as the stars.

27

Thomas Digges was one of the first men

in a Christian land to write that the stars

were scattered across the heavens; he said

that there was no ‘stellar’ sphere. He said

that the number of stars were infinite; he

wrote that space had no end. He wrote of

the ‘glass’ that his father had built; it was

not used to observe the heavens.

Baha’ ad-Din al-Amili (1546-1620) was

an Arab scholar and poet; he was from

what is now Lebanon. He helped to

revive math in Persia; his family had fled

there in his youth due to persecution of

their religious sect. He penned texts on

astronomy; one was an attempt to mesh

Ptolemy’s ideas with Arabic astronomy.

He said that the Earth most likely rotates

daily. He built an advanced sundial that

still works. It is in the city of Isfahan; he

lived there for much of his life.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a famed

Danish astrologer and alchemist, his birth

name was Tyge. He was the most precise

astronomer in the Old World before the

use of the telescope. His father was a

nobleman; this meant that his son’s

interest in astronomy was discouraged.

When he was an infant, his aunt and

uncle took him from his home without

his parents’ knowledge; his father had

promised the childless couple his

firstborn son and then reneged on it. His

father, though angry at first, agreed to let

the pair have the boy; this may have been

due to their vast wealth, which Tycho

inherited.

When he was twelve years old, they sent

Tycho to the University of Copenhagen

to study law; he then attended law

schools at the universities of Leipzig,

Wittenberg, and Rostock. When he was

nineteen, he lost much of his nose in a

duel fought with swords. It had been

held in the dark; most sources say that it

was over who was better at math. From

the next year on, he wore a prosthetic; he

most likely used one of lightweight

copper most of the time. Tycho is said to

have had others to wear on ‘special days’;

these are thought to have had silver or

gold in them.

A portrait of Tycho Brahe

He had watched a solar eclipse at the age

of thirteen; it was the start of his interest

in astronomy. Three years later, he found

that tables by both Ptolemy and

Copernicus had missed a conjunction.

He vowed that he could do better than

both of them had. His first job, while he

was still in law school, was as an

assistant astronomer to the mayor of

Augsburg. Tycho helped him build a

quadrant that had a radius of nineteen

feet; he later wrote that readings taken

with it were not accurate. He may have

also built a celestial globe for the mayor.

When he saw the supernova of 1572, his

decision to be an astronomer was

reaffirmed. He wrote his first book, De

28

Nova Stella, the next year; in it, he

proved that the supernova was as distant

as the stars. He was the first to use the

term ‘nova’; it is Latin for ‘new star.’

Aristotle had said that what we call novae

were in the atmosphere of the Earth; he

wrote that comets were there as well.

Tycho proved that the comet of 1572 had

moved in space, and not the atmosphere.

This meant that the crystalline spheres

that Ptolemy had said moved the planets,

the Sun, and the Moon could not exist. If

the spheres were real, Tycho wrote, they

would have slowed or stopped its passage

and that of all comets. He showed that

comets orbit the Sun, and not the Earth.

In 1574, he visited William IV at Kassel;

the work done by the prince and his staff

impressed Tycho. The state of the art

observatory there also made an impact on

him. The next year, he began building

the most modern observatory in the world

at that time; it was on the small isle of

Hven. The King of Denmark gave Hven

to Tycho, to keep him from moving to

Switzerland as he had said that he might.

Tycho built a paper mill and printing

press on Hven to support his work.

His work there consumed as much as two

percent of the Danish national budget for

years. Tycho committed most of his

immense wealth to it as well. Some

sources say that he controlled as much as

two percent of the country’s gross

domestic product. From the year 1580,

when the first observatory on Hven

opened, to May of 1597, when he made

his last observations there, he did

research that was without precedent in

both its scope and its quality.

Tycho named the observatory Uraniborg.

In Danish, this meant, ‘Castle of Urania’;

she was the Muse of astronomy in Greek

mythology. Some sources say that it was

the ‘first modern research center.’ It was

there that he calculated the length of the

tropical year to within a second. This

was by far the best estimate of it yet.

For most of the years that he was there,

he had a hundred or more students or

assistants working for him at any one

time. Some of them helped to operate the

tools that he had designed. One of these

was a mural quadrant; it had a radius of

almost six feet. He had two freestanding

quadrants of the same size. He used all

three to track the stars and planets.

Uraniborg

He wrote a catalog of 777 stars while he

was at Hven; it was the first one in the

Christian world that did not have data

from Ptolemy. The Greek’s records were

inferior to his; they were badly out of

date as well. Tycho was the first in a

Christian land who wrote a star catalog

that used only his own research; it was

the best in the world, at the time.

In the year 1584, he built a smaller

observatory; he called it Stjerneborg,

which is Danish for ‘Star Castle.’ Most

29

of its instruments were below ground; he

had shown that this improved the quality

of the readings done with them. Both

observatories had the best tools of the

day; with them, he was as precise as one

arc minute in most of his observations.

Some sources say that he may have

exaggerated some of his results; this, they

say, was most likely done to get more

funding.

Stjerneborg, c. 1590

Life at Hven was not all toil; Tycho was

famous for his parties. One highlight of

these was his court jester; he was a ‘little

person’ named Jepp who Tycho thought

was clairvoyant. He made Jepp sit by

him under the table until the Dane felt it

was time for him to make a prediction.

Tycho also had a pet elk (or moose).

Similar to his owner, it was not afraid of

beer. One night, a friend took it to the

house of another nobleman for drinks.

As it left the party, the elk (or moose) fell

down the steps; it soon died.

Tycho had been a supporter of the model

of heliocentrism. In the year 1588, he

finished his study of comets; he felt that

their motions showed that Copernicus

was mistaken. From this, and his

religious beliefs, Tycho would reject the

idea that the Earth orbits the Sun. The

Pole had written that crystalline spheres

powered the planets and other celestial

objects; Tycho had then shown that they

did not exist. This led the Dane to doubt

much of the rest of what he had said.

The Isle of Hven in Tycho’s time;

Uraniborg is in its center. Stjerneborg

is in the lower right of the island

Tycho wrote that the Ptolemaic system,

which said that the universe orbits a point

near the Earth, was also incorrect. This

would lead him to create the ‘Tychonic’

model. He wrote that the five planets

orbit the Sun. He said that comets do as

well; the Sun he said, circles the Earth, as

do the Moon and the stars. The Catholic

Church took up his views as a counter to

the model of heliocentrism; this was

because it did not challenge what was in

the Bible.

Tycho said that the path of Mars crosses

that of the Sun; no one else said this.

There was no evidence for this at that

time, but he was correct. He did agree

with Copernicus that all orbits were

perfectly circular. Tycho erred as well

when he wrote that the stars were only 55

million miles from the Earth; this was

closer than Ptolemy said that they were.

30

In the year 1597, a new king, weary of

Tycho’s arrogance, and of what he had

cost the crown, canceled the subsidy that

paid for most of the work at Hven.

Tycho had grown more and more erratic,

and his cruelty to his assistants and

towards some of the peasants of the isle

had increased; he had placed some of the

serfs in chains.

The Tychonic model: ‘A’ is the Earth,

‘B’ is the Moon, and ‘C’ is the Sun

He would continue to work, even as he

had to travel from place to place. In

1599, Rudolph II made him the Imperial

Mathematician; this Habsburg ruled the

Holy Roman Empire from the city of

Prague. Tycho moved all of his notes

and equipment to the observatory that

Rudolph had built for him near there. He

worked in it for a year, and then moved

to Prague, to be a part of the court.

Tycho’s last assistant, Johannes Kepler,

said that his boss’ refusal to ask for leave,

so he could go to the bathroom, at a

dinner party (due to reluctance on his part

to offend his host) led to a burst bladder.

He was dead after eleven days of agony.

Some historians think that he died from

uremia; it is due to kidney failure.

Analysis of samples of his hair suggests

that the cause was mercury poisoning.

Tycho Brahe and Rudolph II, by

Eduard Ender (1855)

If this killed Tycho, it most likely was an

accident; he had used it for years in his

work as an alchemist. He may have

swallowed mercury in an attempt to cure

his kidneys; if so, it may have been the

true cause of death. The claims that

Kepler or the King of Denmark poisoned

him seem to be without merit. Some

sources say that the king wanted revenge

due to his belief that Tycho had had an

affair with the king’s mother. The king,

they say, thought that he might be

Tycho’s son.

As Tycho lay dying, he asked Kepler to

finish the Rudolphine Tables that they

both had been writing. He said that he

hoped that Kepler would abandon his

belief in Copernicus’ model for Tycho’s

views. His last words, said repeatedly in

his dying delirium, were, “May I not

seem to have lived in vain.”

Kepler fought to keep Tycho’s records,

instead of giving them to the Dane’s

heirs; he lost in courts of law, but it

would take years. All the while, he used

data from Tycho’s years at Hven and

Prague to write the Laws of Planetary

Motion as well as the Rudolphine Tables.

31

Both of these works played a crucial role

in proving the model of heliocentrism;

they also helped to discredit Tycho’s

ideas.

Johannes Kepler

Paul Wittich (1546-1586) was a Silesian

mathematician and astronomer; he

worked in the city of Breslau for most of

his life. He altered the model written by

Copernicus; he said that Mercury and

Venus orbit the Sun. The Sun he wrote,

circles the Earth, as do the Moon, the

other planets, and the stars. This was the

same as in an allegory by Martianus

Capella; he had lived more than a

thousand years earlier. Wittich said that

Mars’ orbit did not intersect that of the

Sun.

He wrote to Hayek, Saville, and others on

issues of astronomy. In the year 1580, he

briefly worked for Tycho Brahe. He

most likely helped to inspire the Dane to

write his own model of the Solar System.

From Hven, he went to Kassel; he

worked for William IV there. The prince

was by this time a rival to Tycho.

William rewarded Wittich when he

shared some of the data and methods that

he had learned while he was at Hven;

Tycho was furious. In revenge, he

omitted the role that Wittich had played

in the origin of the Tychonic model in his

book on it. Using the Dane’s designs as a

guide, Wittich helped Joost Burgi build

tools. One of these was an astrolabe that

he gave to the prince.

Wittich’s alteration of a diagram in his

copy of Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was an

Italian priest and mystic; his real name

was Filippo Bruno. He changed his

given name to Giordano when he became

a monk; it had been his mentor’s name.

Bruno was a loud advocate of the model

that the Earth orbits the Sun, even if he

did not fully understand it. He said that

the universe had no end; he wrote that the

stars were other suns. He said that each

star had planets of its own. Some of

these, he wrote, were similar to the Earth.

He said that the number of both stars and

inhabited planets was infinite. He wrote

that there was life on these planets; some

of them had beings as advanced as that

on Earth. He was the first man to say all

of this since Democritus of Abdera; he

had lived almost two thousand years

earlier. Bruno taught these theories, and

more, for years at the College of Rome.

32

He was most noted for his nemonic

methods; a future pope was one of his

students.

Giordano Bruno

In the year 1576, he was accused of

heresy; he would spend the next fifteen

years in exile. In 1591, he returned to

Italy; he may have assumed he was no

longer a wanted man. The next year, one

of his patrons in Venice turned on him,

and then gave him to the Roman

Inquisition. After a year of questioning,

they sent Bruno to Rome; the Church

held him there for eight more years.

He was defiant at what they called his

trial. Sentenced to death at the stake, he

had eight more days to confess; if he

recanted, his life would be spared. When

he refused to do so, they pierced his

tongue with an iron spike; a second one

was driven into his palate. They paraded

Bruno through the streets of Rome to a

market square. He was stripped, and then

burned at the stake, alive. Most of those

sent to the stake were strangled first; he

was not shown this final act of mercy.

They threw his ashes away.

Bas-relief of Giordano Bruno’s trial

The Church did not kill Giordano Bruno

for his belief in heliocentrism; it did not

ban that model for another sixteen years.

Nor did his view on life beyond the Earth

doom him. Neither was he punished for

saying that each race had its own ‘Adam

and Eve.’

He died for his ‘theological errors.’ It is

unclear what he was charged with; his

file was lost long ago. The Church has

banned his writings since 1603. In the

year 2000, the Papacy wrote a defense of

its actions in his demise; it blamed his

death on the secular authorities who had

carried out the verdict of the Church.

Dinkara (fl. 1578-1583) was a Hindu

astronomer; he wrote astronomical tables.

He penned a text on how to make a

calendar. He described the motions and

longitudes of the celestial objects.

Henry Saville (1549-1622) was an

English mathematician and astronomer.

He played a key role in the revival of

scholarship in Oxford; he founded one of

its astronomy professorships. He was the

first there to teach Copernicus’ model

that the Earth moves, and not the Sun.

He did not endorse it, but it was a part of

his curriculum for years. He wrote to

condemn the practice of astrology.

33

Michael Maestlin (1550-1631) was a

German; he was just the second

astronomer to support Copernicus’ model

that the Earth rotates as it orbits the Sun.

Before he had heard of the Pole’s work,

he had written a book in favor of the

model by Ptolemy; many would read it.

He would then be one of the most

effective champions of heliocentrism. He

worked at the University of Tubingen for

most of his life. He had first won fame

for his study of the comet of 1577 while

he was still a student there.

Michael Maestlin

Michael Maestlin was the first man to say

that comets orbit the Sun; he wrote that

they were between the Earth and Venus.

His studies of the supernova of 1572 and

his work on comets were both as good as

that by Tycho; Maestlin’s words

influenced the work the Dane did on

both. He cataloged the Pleiades. He was

a mentor to Kepler; he influenced

Galileo. Maestlin was the first man to

tell Kepler of the model that the Earth

orbits the Sun; he may have been the first

to write to Galileo on it as well.

Acyuta Pisarati (c. 1550-1621) was a

Hindu astrologer and mathematician; he

improved on the model of planetary

longitudes that Somayaji wrote decades

earlier. He wrote in praise of the

planetary theory that his predecessor had

written; they both worked at the Kerala

School.

Nicolaus Reimers (1551-1600) was a

German astronomer and mathematician;

he was the Imperial Mathematician to

Rudolph II before Tycho Brahe was.

Most sources say that he plagiarized the

Tychonic model; Tycho was the first to

have accused him of doing so. Reimers

made changes to it: He said that the path

of Mars did not intersect that of the Sun.

He said that the Earth rotated; this was an

improvement to the model, as the Dane

had written that the Earth did not move.

Joost Burgi (1552-1632) was a Swiss

clockmaker and mathematician;

Dasypodius had trained him, at the

University of Strasburg. He then went to

Kassel to work for William IV; he was

the main builder of astronomical tools for

the prince. He won fame for these,

especially for his clocks; they were

accurate to within a minute a day. This

allowed for their use in astronomy; this

was a first in the Christian world.

While Burgi was at Kassel, he worked

with both Rothmann and the prince. The

three of them wrote what some call the

‘first modern astronomical charts.’ He

invented the mechanized celestial globe;

he built a clock for Tycho Brahe. In

1600, he moved to Prague, to join the

court of Rudolph II; he worked with

Kepler there.

Jorgen Dybvad (died 1612) was a

Danish scholar and astrologer. He

graduated from the University of

Wittenberg; one of his teachers there was

Peucer. He was the first Dane to write in

34

support of the model of heliocentrism;

still, he taught Ptolemy’s model while he

was at the University of Copenhagen. He

did use Copernicus’ theory of lunar

motions and not the one by Ptolemy.

Petrus Plancius (1552-1622) was a

Flemish cleric and astronomer, as well as

a navigator and mapmaker. His true

name was Pieter Platevoet. He had fled

to Holland in the Eighty Years’ War.

There, he built the first celestial globes

that showed the constellations and stars

of the southern hemisphere. Much of the

data he used came from navigators that

he had trained to map the sky.

Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) was an Italian

Jesuit; Clavius was one of his teachers at

the College of Rome. He then worked as

a missionary for four years in the city of

Goa, India; it was a Portuguese colony at

the time. While he was there, he might

have learned of some of the work at the

Kerala School; this may have influenced

his views.

Then, in the year 1582, he was

transferred to China; he brought the

science of Europe to that land. He had

with him the first modern map of the

world seen there; he was also the first in

China to teach modern trigonometry. In

1601, he went to Beijing; he was the first

from a foreign land to enter the

‘Forbidden City’ there. He soon was the

Court Mathematician; he then worked in

the Imperial Astronomy Bureau. He

traveled widely in China; he was the first

man from the West to do so since the

Mongols had ruled that land. He was the

first from the Western world to make

precise maps of the ‘Middle Kingdom.’

Ricci was fluent in Chinese; he wrote

twenty works of science in it. He dressed

in local garb; his Chinese name, Li-ma-

teu Hsi-ju, meant ‘Wise Man of the

West.’ He supported Copernicus’ model

that the Earth orbits the Sun. Thanks to

the Pole’s data, he could predict eclipses

much better than could the Chinese

emperor’s astronomers and astrologers.

His skill with math and science helped to

win many converts to Christianity there.

A 1610 portrait of Matteo Ricci

Peder Jacobsen Flemlos (c. 1554-1598)

was a Danish doctor and astronomer; he

was able to work for Tycho Brahe longer

than anyone else could do it. He

observed the sky for him from Norway

and Germany, as well as from Poland.

Jakob Christmann (1554-1613) was a

German Jew; he became a Christian as an

adult. He was an orientalist; he published

tables by Rheticus. He translated from

Arabic some of the texts on astronomy by

al-Farghani. He taught math and

astronomy at the University of

Heidelberg. He shared data with Kepler.

Christoph Rothmann (c. 1555-1605?)

was a German mathematician and

35

astronomer. He was the main astronomer

for William IV in Kassel for years; he

worked with Burgi there as well. He was

one of the first there to support the model

of heliocentrism. With time, he

convinced most of his coworkers of the

fact that the Earth orbits the Sun. He

wrote much of the Hessian Star Catalog.

Some sources say that it was better than

the catalog by Tycho Brahe; much of the

praise it earns is due to Rothmann’s

work.

He studied comets; he wrote that these

moved ‘beyond the Moon’ and not in the

atmosphere as Aristotle had said that they

did. Rothmann did err when he said that

comets are vapors from the Earth. He

wrote on atmospheric refraction as well,

as did Tycho Brahe. His work on it has

also been called better than that by the

Dane. In 1590, he left Kassel to work for

Tycho. He was at Hven for just a month;

from then on, he wrote of only religious

issues.

Giovanni Magini (1555-1617) was an

Italian mathematician and astronomer.

He replaced Danti as the chair of math at

the University of Bologna; he got the job

instead of Galileo. He rejected

Copernicus’ model that the Earth, and not

the Sun, was in motion. He did say that

the Pole had made some valid points.

He was one of the best builders of tools

for astronomy in all of Europe. He

published what some sources say was the

first ‘true modern atlas.’ He used data

from both Tycho and Kepler to write a

geocentric model; no one used it. He

shared data with them and later, Galileo.

He wrote astronomical tables.

Thomas Hood (1556-1620) was an

English mathematician and doctor; he

was one of the first at Oxford to teach

Copernicus’ model that the Earth circles

the Sun. He recorded the supernova of

1572; he built new types of tools for use

in astronomy.

Sophia Brahe (1557-1643) was a Danish

scholar; she was the youngest of ten

children. She helped her brother Tycho

write a star catalog. They studied

eclipses and planetary orbits for nine

years. He had tutored her in chemistry

and horticulture, but she learned

astronomy on her own. She helped him

cast horoscopes until the year 1597. She

was the first female astronomer of note in

more than 1200 years; the last one was

the Greek scholar Hypatia of Alexandria.

She had been flayed while still alive (see

Curation Paper Number Two).

Sophia Brahe

As with her brother, due to her status as a

member of the nobility, Sophia was told

that astronomy was beneath her. Tycho

was one of those who had tried to

dissuade her; he later wrote of his pride

in her skill in the science. The rest of the

family did not support her dream. They

cut her off after her second marriage; this

was to a penniless alchemist whom she

36

had met at Hven. After being a widow

for the second time, she supported her

children and herself by writing

genealogies.

Philippus Lansbergen (1561-1634) was

a Dutch cleric and mathematician; he was

also an astronomer, a politician and a

doctor. He wrote a book in support of

Copernicus’ model that the Earth moved,

and not the heavens; he was the first in

Holland to do so. His book was a

success; his words helped to convince

many of its readers that heliocentrism

was the truth. He was a critic of the

theory that said that orbits are elliptical;

still, Kepler would use his tables.

Duncan Liddel (1561-1613) was a

Scottish doctor and astronomer; one of

his teachers was Tycho Brahe. Liddel

then worked at several universities in

Germany. He taught all three models of

the Solar System: The one written by

Ptolemy, Copernicus’ system, and the

recent effort by Tycho Brahe.

Longomontanus (1562-1647) was an

astronomer from Denmark; his real name

was Christian Severin. As was common

with scholars in Europe at the time, he

took a Latin version of the name of his

birthplace; in his case, this was the

village of Lomborg. He was eight years

old when his father, a laborer, died. At

the age of fifteen, he ran away from

home, in order to get an education. He

was poor but the Lutheran Church sent

him to the University of Copenhagen; he

taught astronomy there.

Longomontanus was the best known of

the disciples of Tycho Brahe; he was his

only long-term student as well. He

worked for eight years at Hven; he then

went with Tycho to Prague. There, he

helped his mentor map the orbit of the

Moon. In 1622, he wrote the only book

that detailed the Tychonic model. He

said that the Earth rotated; this made his

work superior to that by Tycho Brahe.

His book, and the tables that he wrote in

support of it, helped make the Tychonic

system popular for years. He wrote that

comets were evil omens.

Longomontanus (Christen Severin)

Gellio Sasceride (1562-1612) was a

Danish astronomer and doctor; he was

one of those who worked for Tycho

Brahe on the island of Hven. In the year

1590, he gave Galileo, who was a friend

of his, the first book on the model of

heliocentrism that the Italian owned.

Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) was a Chinese

scientist. He was the first scholar from

his homeland who worked with a

counterpart of his from Europe; this was

the Jesuit, Matteo Ricci. He converted

Xu and many others to Christianity. Xu

was one of the first in his country to be

converted by the Jesuits. He learned of

modern science from them. Xu then

made reforms to the Chinese calendar.

He could predict eclipses with precision.

37

Xu Guangqi

David Fabricius (1564-1617) was a

German cleric and astronomer; he was

also an astrologer and a mapmaker. His

birth name was most likely either Faber

or Goldschmidt. He discovered the star

Mira in 1596. As it faded with time, he

thought that it was a nova; when it re-

appeared in thirteen years, he realized

that it was not. Mira is the first known

periodic variable star. He had seen it

with a camera obscura both times it had

shown; he mapped sunspots with these

tools as well.

He visited Tycho Brahe at Hven and

then, Prague; he formed a friendship with

Kepler while they were both there. The

two parted ways in the year 1608 due to

his support of the Tychonic model, this

had angered his more famous friend.

Kepler wrote that he thought that his

former colleague might plagiarize some

of his work. In nine years, Fabricius was

killed by a shovel blow to the head. He

had preached against a member of his

church who he said had stolen a goose.

Laurentius Gothus (1565-1646) was a

Swedish archbishop; he was also an

astronomer. Liddel was one of his

teachers at the University of Rostock; the

Swede was influenced by him as well as

by the writings of Petrus Ramus. He

returned to Sweden; he helped to advance

the state of astronomy there by more than

a century. He was a believer in

astrology. He said that comets were

forces of evil.

Li Zhizao (1565-1630) was a Chinese

scientist; he was one of the first Christian

converts there. He translated to Chinese

scientific works that the Jesuits gave him.

He brought the idea back to China that

Earth was both a sphere and in motion.

For all of its history, scholars there had

said that the (flat) Earth was immobile.

Willem Blaeu (1571-1638) was a Dutch

scientist; in the year 1600, he discovered

the second known variable star, P. Cygni.

Willem Blaeu

He had been an assistant to Tycho Brahe

on the isle of Hven for a year; he made

globes and tools for the Dane. He built a

planetarium and a quadrant once he was

back in Holland. He had his own

printing press there. He published

38

scientific tracts; these included his own

maps and other works.

Fredrick de Houtman (1571-1627) was

a Dutch explorer; he was on the first

expedition from Holland to East Asia. In

that time, he helped Keyser to map

twelve new constellations while they

were both on the island of Madagascar.

They had to stay there for ship repairs.

Two years after that, while he was on the

second voyage by the Dutch to the Orient

he mapped 196 stars. He did this from a

prison on Sumatra; he was held there for

two years.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a

renowned German astronomer and

mathematician; he was also an astrologer.

He wrote that his birth had been

premature; he said that this caused him to

have health problems for all of his life.

The worst ailment was smallpox; it left

him with weak eyesight and crippling

pain in his hands. He wrote that as a

result, he was never able to be a good

observer of the sky.

Most sources say that he was five years

old when his father vanished. He was a

part-time mercenary. He may have died

in battle, but Kepler wrote that he had

deserted the family. His mother had to

run her father’s tavern to make ends

meet; her son had a low opinion of both

her and her parents.

Kepler showed such skill at math, first at

the tavern and then in school, that he won

a scholarship to the University of

Tubingen. After he had graduated, he

taught astronomy at the University of

Graz. He had hoped to enter the

ministry, but he was too poor. He had

seen the comet of 1577 when he was six

years old, but he did not have a life-long

dream of being an astronomer.

A portrait of Kepler done in 1610

He published his first book, Mysterium

Cosmographicum, in 1596; it was the

first math-based defense of Copernicus’

model that the Earth orbits the Sun. Only

a few would read it, but it brought him to

the attention of Tycho Brahe. In four

years, Kepler joined him at his

observatory near Prague to be one of his

math assistants. He was soon promoted

to mapping the orbit of the planet Mars

for the Dane; this was a key task.

Once Tycho had died, Kepler replaced

him as Imperial Mathematician; this was

what the Dane had wanted. He used

Tycho’s data, from Hven and Prague, to

write both the Laws of Planetary Motion

and the Rudolphine Tables. Kepler had

said, in a letter to a friend, that he had no

right to Tycho’s notes; that did not stop

him from fighting the heirs to keep them.

He lost in a lengthy court battle, but by

the time it was resolved he had used the

records to disprove the Tychonic model.

This did not discredit it with most people.

39

In the twelve years that he was in Prague,

Kepler expanded Tycho’s catalog from

777 stars to 1005. He then added 400

more stars from the star catalog by

Ptolemy as well as the one that Bayer had

just written. In 1604, Kepler wrote of the

supernova that had appeared in the sky

that year. He proved that it and all novae

were far from the Earth; they were not in

the atmosphere as Aristotle had said. It is

often called ‘Kepler’s nova.’

The remnant of the Supernova of 1604

Three years later, Kepler used cameras

obscura to observe sunspots. At first, he

had mistaken the initial one for the planet

Mercury. He gave the camera obscura its

name. He wrote that when he put a lens

in the hole of one, he started to

understand how the human eye worked.

He went on to found the modern science

of optics. In 1609, Kepler published

Astronomia nova; it had two of his three

Laws of Planetary Motion. He had

written it four years earlier, but his fight

with Tycho’s heirs had delayed it.

In 1612, Rudolph II was overthrown by

his younger brother. The new emperor

ordered Kepler and the rest of his court to

convert to Catholicism; instead, Kepler

moved his family from Prague to the city

of Linz. While he was there, he kept his

post as Imperial Mathematician. After

seven years in Linz, he published

Harmonice Mundi; it had the third of his

Laws of Planetary Motion.

With his laws, Kepler had shown that all

orbits are elliptical; this was a key part of

the way that the Solar System works. He

also proved that the theory that the Moon

governs the Earth’s tides was correct.

Seleucus of Seleucia had first proposed it

more than 1700 years earlier.

Kepler finished writing the Rudolphine

Tables in 1623; as part of his settlement

with Tycho’s heirs, they now had the

right to edit all of his work. The tables

were not published for four more years.

They were the best in the world at that

time; they were more than 30 times as

precise as any earlier astronomical tables.

The Rudolphine Tables were the first to

have logarithmic tables. They were also

the first to correct for all of the effects of

atmospheric refraction. Tycho had dealt

with it, but only for the lowest twenty

degrees of the sky for stars and for the

first 45 degrees for other objects.

Kepler’s deeds belie the turmoil of his

times, as well as in his life; he would be

poor for most of his years. By the year

1615, he had buried his first wife and five

of his children. For the next six years, he

had to spend much of his time and funds

in a successful defense of his aged

mother on a charge of witchcraft. She

was an herbal healer; this had made her

the subject of gossip for years. Smallpox

had killed his second wife and a daughter

in those same years.

These woes and more most likely helped

to bring on his early death. It came while

he was trying to collect money that he

40

said he was owed. All sign of his grave

disappeared in six years; the Swedish

army had razed the churchyard that held

it.

A portrait of Johannes Kepler, 1627

Johannes Kepler had played a key role in

the growth of astronomy in the early days

of telescopes. He is called the ‘father’ of

both celestial mechanics and celestial

physics. He wrote the book, Somnium; it

is called ‘the first work of science fiction’

by most sources.

Kepler is honored as ‘The First Modern

Astronomer,’ but as with Copernicus, he

mixed science with mysticism. He said

that the Earth had a soul; he thought that

God reveals the secrets of the universe

through geometry. He was a staunch

defender of most forms of astrology. He

cast horoscopes for himself and his

family; he also did it to make a living.

He lived in a time when astrology was at

one of its heights.

His triumphs would lead to the advances

by Newton and others, in both math and

science. The works of Johannes Kepler

were integral to the Scientific

Revolution; one source says that he was

the ‘central figure’ in that revolution.

Jacob Metius (1571-1635) was a Dutch

mathematician and astronomer. His real

name was Jacob Adriaanszoon; he was

the younger brother of Metius. He

worked for Tycho Brahe at Hven, briefly.

He built tools for use in astronomy there,

and after he returned to Holland; the most

noted of these was one of the first

telescopes. He taught astronomy. He

denounced astrology.

Diego de Pantoja (1571-1618) was a

Spanish Jesuit; he worked in China for

the last twenty years of his life. There, he

and de Ursis predicted a solar eclipse that

the astronomers who worked for the

Emperor had not foreseen. The two

Jesuits then tried, in vain, to reform the

calendar used there at the time; they had

to flee from the backlash. The Chinese

exiled them to the Portuguese colony of

Macao.

Johann Bayer (1572-1625) was a

Bavarian lawyer and astronomer. In the

year 1603, he wrote the first star catalog

to show the stars of the Southern

hemisphere; it was as well the first to

have the first twelve constellations from

there.

He had used data from the star catalog

Tycho Brahe had written to update the 48

constellations used by Ptolemy. Bayer

was the first man to use Greek letters for

the brightest stars. Soon, all atlases

would adopt this format; it is still used.

Simon Marius (1573-1624) was a

Bavarian astronomer. His birth name

was Simon Mayr; he wrote astronomical

tables. He wrote of the comet of 1596 as

41

well as the supernova of 1604. He was a

rival to Galileo; he supported the

Tychonic system and not the model that

the Earth orbits the Sun. He worked with

Tycho Brahe at the court of Rudolph II;

this was in the city of Prague.

Simon Marius

In 1605, he was the court mathematician

and doctor of the Duke of Ansbach; it

was a minor state in Germany. In four

years, the duke built an observatory for

him. Marius was one of the first to view

the sky through a telescope. He made

major finds with it; in 1614, he named

the four ‘Galilean’ moons of Jupiter. He

said that he, and not Galileo, was the first

to see them; there is no evidence for this.

Xing Yunlu (1573-1620) was a Chinese

administrator and astronomer; he was

also a poet. He built a gnomon that was

66 feet tall. He used it as well as other

tools to calculate the tropical year to

within 2.3 seconds. This is more than

twenty-three seconds as precise as the

Gregorian calendar year. He proposed

reforms for the calendar used in China,

but it was in vain.

Sabatino de Ursis (1575-1620) was an

Italian Jesuit; he assisted Ricci and Xu

Guangqi as they brought the science of

Europe to China for the first time. He

and de Pantoja predicted a solar eclipse

there with success. They had to flee for

their lives when they tried to reform

China’s calendar.

Peter Cruger (1580-1639) was a

German scientist, philosopher, and poet.

He was a student of Tycho Brahe and

then Kepler. He wrote in favor of

Copernicus’ model that the Earth circles

the Sun. He built tools for astronomy.

Jan Brozek (1585-1652) was a Polish

mathematician and astronomer; he

worked at the Jagiellonian University.

He taught Ptolemy’s model of the Solar

System to his students, but he was a

supporter of the model that the Earth

moved, not the Sun. He collected all of

the notes and unpublished papers of

Copernicus. He had hoped to write the

first biography of the famous Pole. After

his death, none of those documents was

ever found.

Jan Brozek

42

EPILOGUE: TRADITIONAL ASTRONOMY IN ASIA (1603-1904)

Munisvara (born 1603) was a Hindu

astronomer and mathematician; he was a

prolific writer. He disputed the model of

precession as used by Kamalakara. He

penned criticisms of some of the theories

written long before by Bhaskara II.

Mulla Mahmud Jaunpuri (1606-1651)

was a Mughal philosopher; he was the

first man in India to write a challenge to

Ptolemy’s model. He showed that the

velocities of the planets, the Sun, and the

Moon all varied more than the Greek had

said that they did.

Kamalakara (c. 1616-c. 1700) was a

Hindu astronomer and mathematician; he

tried to mesh the views of both Aristotle

and Ptolemy with the astronomy of India.

He was the author of books on

astronomy; in one of them, he wrote of

diurnal motion as well as on eclipses. He

revived the idea in India that the Pole star

was not true north. He and Munisvara

were foes.

Wang Hsi-Shan (1628-1682) was a

Chinese astronomer. He wrote tables that

used the Tychonic model; they helped

him to be the first in his homeland who

could predict both solar transits and

planetary occultations. He did not use

telescopes, but he tried to adapt the rest

of Western astronomy to Chinese

methods. He improved on Tycho’s work

by adding epicycles to its orbits.

Jagannatha Samrat (1652-1744) was a

Hindu astronomer and mathematician; he

was one of the first in India who stressed

observation over theory in astronomy.

He was Jai Singh’s Court Astronomer; in

that role, he translated a version of the

Almagest to Sanskrit for the prince; al-

Tusi had written it in Persian centuries

earlier. Samrat would not use telescopes;

he was still able to do precise work.

Jai Singh II (1688-1743) was a Hindu

prince and astronomer; he tried to bring

the science of Europe to his homeland.

He was well versed in the astronomy of

India by the age of thirteen; Samrat had

been his tutor. He also studied the

science of the Muslim world.

He ruled the state of Jaipur; it was called

Amber at the time. He was a vassal of

the Mughal Emperor, Muhammad Shah;

he encouraged Jai Singh to pursue his

dream of modernizing astronomy in

India. To this end, the prince built five

observatories; four of them still stand.

Each of them had monumental gnomons

and other types of fixed devices; many of

them were of his own design. He used

astrolabes, quadrants, and other tools.

Jai Singh II

The results that he and his staff achieved

at them were as reliable as any that could

be done with the inferior telescopes in the

country at that time. He used data from

Ulugh Beg in much of his work; he wrote

tables that were based on that prince’s

43

research. These were the last widely read

astronomical tables in the world written

without the use of telescopes.

Jai Singh sent a team to Portugal, in part

to buy tools for astronomy there. He

used telescopes that the Jesuits had given

him, but the results dissatisfied him. He

was, as well, disappointed with the tables

that he had written based on the work by

Ulugh Beg. He set up a translation bureau

for scientific texts that had been written

in Persian or Arabic. He had the largest

library in India; it is still in existence.

Mirza Khairullah Muhandis (fl. c.

1720) was a Hindu scholar and poet; he

designed Jai Singh’s observatories. He

helped to update Ulugh Beg’s tables for

the prince as well. He wrote that the

paths that the Sun and the other celestial

objects take around the Earth might be

ellipses. He most likely did not know of

Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion.

A sundial at the observatory in Delhi

Kevalarama (died 1782) this Hindu was

the ‘Astronomer Royal’ for Jai Singh.

He calculated the tropical year to within

three minutes for him; this was the best

estimate of it yet in India. He translated

Ulugh Beg’s tables from Persian to

Sanskrit for the prince. He converted

modern astronomical tables from Europe

as well; these were in French.

Sankara Varman (1800-1838) was a

Hindu astronomer and mathematician; he

was the last known scholar of the Kerala

School. It had been founded more than

400 years earlier. He wrote a history of

both math and astronomy in India.

Samanta Chandrasekhar (1835-1904)

this Hindu was a self-taught astronomer;

he was a precise observer of the sky. He

lived in a remote area in the east of India;

he had never learned of telescopes or the

model of heliocentrism. He studied the

sky for years; he wrote a geoheliocentric

model of the Solar System.

In this work, he said that both Mercury

and Venus orbit the Sun. He wrote that

the Sun, the planets, and the stars all

circle the Earth; this is the same as the

Capellan model. He built tools of wood

and bamboo; in the year 1874, he used

them to predict a solar transit by the

planet Venus. His precision in this won

him honors. These came from the British

government as well as European

scientists. Almanacs in his home state

still use his data.

Samanta Chandrasekhar

44

GLOSSARY- THE TRIUMPH OF EUROPE (c. 1500-1652)

Akbar: Was the third Mughal Emperor;

he was the son and heir of Humayun. He

lived from 1542 to 1605; he made the

Mughals the dominant power in what are

now India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Alchemy: This is the belief that physical

properties or objects are subject to

manipulation. This, it was thought, could

produce other types of matter or

conditions; even immortality was seen as

possible. Alchemy most likely began in

ancient Egypt; since then, much of it has

centered on the pursuit of producing gold

or other precious minerals from common

materials.

Until the eighteenth century, most of

those in Europe saw it as a valid science.

Much of modern chemistry has its roots

in alchemy. Tycho Brahe and Isaac

Newton were just two of the many men

of their time who were alchemists.

Alexander VI: This Spaniard was born

Rodrigo Lanzol de Borgia in 1431. He

was the pope from 1492 to his death in

1503; his rule was one long scandal.

Alfonsine Tables: Are astronomical

tables that were prepared by a team of

Jewish scholars on the orders of King

Alfonso X of Castile and Leon. They

wrote them after doing a yearlong survey

of the sky from the city of Toledo, Spain.

This was done at some point between the

years 1263 and 1272; they were to correct

errors that had been found in the Toledan

Tables.

The Alfonsine Tables were the first tables

written for the Christian world. Done in

Spanish, they were the first scientific

work for Western Christians not in Latin

as well; all later editions did use Latin.

After much revision and elaboration at

the University of Paris in the year 1327,

they were the most popular tables in

Europe until 1551. That year Reinhold

published the Prutenic Tables. The

figure for the tropical year in the

‘Parisian Alfonsine Tables’ was off by

only 30 seconds; this was the best

estimate in Christian Europe until 1582.

The Alfonsine Tables

The Almagest: Is the Latinized version

of a portion of al-kitabu-l-mijisti, which

is Arabic for ‘The Great Book’; it has

been known by this title for the last 1400

years. Claudius Ptolemy called it The

Mathematical Syntaxis when he wrote it,

c. AD 150. He was a Greek who lived

in Egypt, which was part of the Roman

Empire at the time. In it, he detailed his

math-based model of the universe; he

said this was centered near the Earth, but

not on it.

The Almagest was the first book to have

astronomical tables done in advance for

common dates and events. It was the

most important work in the astronomy

of the West for more than 1400 years.

Only the efforts of Copernicus, Kepler,

and most of all, Galileo, disproved

Ptolemy’s model.

45

Almanac: Is any book with data on the

positions of the Sun, the Moon, and the

planets; it has other astronomical and

meteorological data as well. They are

published on a regular basis.

Petrus Apianus: (1495-1552) a German

scientist, he was one of the first in the

West to study comets systematically.

Arc minute: Is a unit of measurement in

that is equal to 1/60th

of a degree.

Aristarchus of Samos: This famed

Greek astronomer and mathematician (c.

310-c. 230 BC) was the first man to say

that the Earth and all of the planets orbit

the Sun. His heliocentric model was

ridiculed for most of the next 2000 years.

Aristotle: Was a Greek philosopher

(384-322 BC), his views on science and

philosophy governed much of Western

thought for more than two millennia. His

works are called ‘Aristotelian.’

Armillary sphere: Is a computing and

sighting device that some call a spherical

astrolabe.

A model of one of the types of

armillary sphere used at Hven

It is a three-dimensional model of the

sky that has a spherical ‘Earth’ at its

center; the first one was built c. 255 BC,

in the Greek world. A series of rings

that represent the orbital paths of certain

celestial objects, as well as the planes of

the equator and the meridian, surround

the ‘globe.’ The armillary sphere was

the main tool of astronomy in the Old

World until the telescope.

Astrolabe: This is a sighting and

computing device that consists of a

circular slide rule-planisphere and

engraved data tables that are all nested in

a hollow disk. The first astrolabe dates to

c. 150 BC; some say Hipparchus built it.

They were used to track the motions of

the celestial objects; they could aid with

the calculation of the time of day as well.

The first known universal astrolabe was

built in Muslim Spain, c. 1050.

A portable astrolabe, built c. 1500

Astrology: Is the belief that the positions

of the planets and the stars can influence

life on Earth, especially their positions

when a person is born. From its start in

Sumer and Egypt by the year 2500 BC,

most viewed astrology as a valid science;

it was related to astronomy until the

eighteenth century. Many astronomers

such as Tycho Brahe and Kepler were

46

also astrologers. In this era, very few

would write to condemn astrology.

Astronomical clock: Is a timekeeping

device that provides data on the signs of

the zodiac as well as the positions and

motions of some of the celestial objects.

Most of these clocks show the Sun

circling the Earth, as they predate the

eighteenth century; this was the time of

the triumph of heliocentrism. The first

ones were built in China, c. 980.

Astronomical tables: Are mathematical

tables that are used to aid the calculation

of the positions of the Sun, the Moon, the

planets, and the stars. They have

information on lunar phases and eclipses,

as well as other calendrical data.

Astronomy: Is the scientific study of

objects that are beyond the atmosphere of

the Earth; some call it ‘the first science.’

The Sumerians were the first to elevate

astronomy to a true science, c. 3500 BC.

The Astronomer, Paul Vermeer (1668)

Atmospheric refraction: This is an

optical illusion that is caused by the

bending of light waves. This is due to the

variable density of the atmosphere of the

Earth. This causes objects near the

horizon to appear higher in the sky than

they are. Astronomers correct for this by

viewing items at their highest point; it is

where its effects are less pronounced.

Bavaria: Is the southeastern portion of

Germany. Prior to the rise of Prussia in

the eighteenth century, it was often the

richest and strongest of the German

states. Most of its people are Catholics.

Bhaskara II: (1114-1185) was a Hindu

mathematician, astronomer-astrologer,

and poet. He said that the energy of the

Earth ‘attracts’ all things to it.

Breslau: Known as Wroclaw today, this

city in the west of Poland was founded in

the tenth century by Bohemians; its name

then was Sviatislavia. It was burned in

the Mongol invasion of 1241. The new

town had a large population of German

speakers; they renamed it Breslau. It was

transferred from Germany to Poland after

World War II. Most of its German

population had fled in 1945.

c.: A symbol meaning ‘circa,’ which is

Latin for ‘about’ or ‘around.’ Used when

the exact date of an event is unknown.

Camera obscura: Is the Latin term for

‘veiled chamber’; it is a room or boxlike

object with a small hole at one end.

Light rays reflected from a bright subject,

when they pass through the hole do not

scatter. Instead, they will cross and re-

form; this produces a reverse image of

the subject on a flat surface that is held

parallel to the hole. The camera obscura

was a precursor of the modern camera;

astronomers would use them prior to the

invention of the telescope. In sixteenth

century Europe, they were improved by

placing a convex lens over the hole.

47

The oldest known illustration of a

camera obscura; Gemma Frisius, 1544

Martianus Capella: A Roman author (c.

AD 365-440), he wrote an allegory that

had the earliest known geoheliocentric

model. He said that Venus and Mercury

both orbit the Sun. The Sun and the rest

of the Solar System, he said, circle the

Earth. This is the ‘Capellan’ model.

Celestial globe: This is also known as a

celestial sphere. It is a representation of

the night sky as seen from the Earth.

Celestial mechanics: Is the branch of

astronomy that deals with the motions

and gravitational properties of the

celestial objects. In the period under

discussion, these were limited to the Sun,

the Moon, the stars, and the five planets.

Celestial objects: Before the use of

telescopes, these were the Sun, the

Moon, the stars, and the five visible

planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,

and Saturn. In this era, most in the West

thought that comets were atmospheric

phenomena.

Charles V: A King of Spain and Holy

Roman Emperor, he lived from the years

1500 to 1558. His reign was the ‘Golden

Age’ of Spain; he was the most powerful

man in the world for most of his life.

Chinese calendars: There has been only

one change in the calendar used in the

Christian world in the last two millennia

but there have been many calendars used

in China in those same years. This is due

to emperors there being seen as receiving

permission to rule through the ‘Mandate

of Heaven.’

As eclipses and other events in the sky

were thought to be threats to Earth’s

existence, many rulers began their reign

with a new calendar. This, it was hoped,

assured that there would be no such signs

of ‘Heaven’s disapproval’ that had not

been predicted. In some cases, these

could lead to the overthrow of the new

sovereign. More often, unforeseen

celestial events resulted in the death of

the court astronomers who had failed to

predict them.

Chinese Islamic calendar: Also known

as the Huihui-li calendar, it is a luni-solar

calendar. It was developed by Chinese

and Muslim astronomers; they worked in

the city of Dadu (Beijing), at the

direction of Kublai Khan (1215-1294). It

was used in China along with other

calendars for three centuries.

College of Rome: Now a part of the

Pontifical Gregorian University, this

school was founded in the year 1551 by

Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He was the

founder of the Society of Jesus (the

Jesuits). Many of the missionaries whom

the Society sent to convert the

populations of Asia, Africa, and the

Americas were trained at the college.

Constellation: Is one of the 88 artificial

groupings of stars and galaxies that are

used around the world; most of them

were first defined by Eudoxus of Cnidus.

Most cultures have their own system of

48

constellations. Other star groups, such as

the ‘Big Dipper’ are called asterisms.

Both constellations and asterisms are

defined by their appearance from Earth.

In reality, the stars of most are far apart

from each other.

Coordinates: These describe the

location of a celestial object, as expressed

by its declination and right ascension.

Nicolaus Copernicus: Was a famed

Polish scientist, administrator, cleric,

and doctor (1473-1543); he revived

theories from ancient Greece that said

that the Earth and the other planets all

orbit the Sun. This was a challenge to

the dominant Ptolemaic astronomy of

his time, as well as to Church doctrine.

A 1580 painting of Copernicus

He laid the foundations of modern

astronomy as well; many credit him with

starting the Scientific Revolution. He

was in many ways a medieval man; he

said that the stars were 74 million miles

from Earth. He wrote that the Sun was

the literal abode of God; it, he said was

at or near the center of the universe.

Cosmography: This science deals with

descriptions of the general features of the

universe. This is done at a level less

detailed than that of astronomy.

Crypto-Calvinism: Was a pejorative

term for the influence of Calvinism in the

Lutheran Church. It was used in the

years soon after the death of Martin

Luther (1483-1546). Those accused of it

were persecuted in much of Protestant

Germany from the years 1552 to 1592.

Crystalline spheres: Was a key part of

the Solar System model that was written

by Eudoxus of Cnidus. He said that the

Sun, the Moon, the stars, and the planets

all orbit the Earth inside of 27 circular,

concentric spheres. After Aristotle,

Callipus, and Ptolemy made changes to it,

this concept was used by most Western

astronomers until 1577.

That year, Tycho Brahe proved that

comets traveled far beyond the Moon; this

meant that they were not atmospheric

phenomena, as Aristotle claimed. If they

had been real, the comet of 1577 could

not travel through the Solar System, as it

would have destroyed, or been impeded

by the spheres.

Declination: Is one of two coordinates

of the equatorial coordinate system,

which is based on measuring celestial

objects from the ecliptic. The other

coordinate is the difference of right

ascension. Declination is synonymous

with latitude when it is projected onto the

celestial sphere. It is used to measure the

vertical coordinate of an object.

Diurnal motion: This is the apparent

motion of the Sun and the stars as viewed

from Earth. It is caused by the rotation of

the Earth.

49

Dogma: Is a system of beliefs that is not

supported by empirical evidence. Early

Christian dogma held the Earth was flat

and at the center of the universe,

contemporary Aristotelian dogma stated

that the universe was finite, unchanging,

and centered on the Earth.

The ecliptic: This is the term for the

path of the Sun, as it appears to move

across the sky over the course of a year.

It is where eclipses occur.

Eighty Year’s War: Also known as the

Dutch War of Independence, this conflict

lasted from the years 1568 to 1648. It

resulted in what is now the Netherlands

gaining its independence from Spain.

Elizabeth I: Was a Queen of England

(1553 to 1603); she brought England

back to Protestantism. Her reign began

its rise to the status of a great power.

Elliptical orbits: Contrary to most

theories of this era, planets move in

ellipses, not in circles or epicycles.

Kepler published the Laws of Planetary

Motion in the years 1609 and 1624; they

state that all planets have elliptical orbits.

Epicycles: Are theoretical smaller

circles in the orbits of some of the

celestial objects as they move inside of

larger circles; these are called deferents.

Hipparchus and Ptolemy used the

concept of epicycles to explain planetary

motions; they said that the speed of each

object in an epicycle varied.

Epicycles were a central part of the

astronomy of the West until Kepler

proved that they did not exist.

Copernicus had to use more epicycles in

his model than Ptolemy had used in his.

They were a central part of the

astronomy of the West until Kepler

proved that they did not exist.

‘Fixed stars’: The Babylonians and

Greeks were the first to distinguish the

‘wandering’ planets from the ‘fixed

stars’ that do not appear to move, other

than from diurnal motion.

Ptolemaic epicycles in Mars’ orbit

Equinox: This biannual event occurs

when the Sun appears to be directly

above the equator. The Vernal (spring)

Equinox occurs every March 20 or 21,

and the Autumnal (fall) Equinox falls on

September 22 or 23. On those days, the

Sun rises due east and sets due west on

the equator; the lengths of the day and

night are equal as well.

Eudoxus of Cnidus: This Greek was the

first known mathematical astronomer; he

lived in the years from 408 to 355 BC.

fl.: The symbol for floruit, which is the

Latin word for ‘flourished.’ It is used

when a person’s period of highest

productivity or influence is known, but

the dates of their birth or death are not.

Ahmad al-Farghani: Was a Persian

astronomer and mathematician; his

known work dates between 830 and 861.

50

Ferdinand II: A Holy Roman Emperor,

he lived from 1571 to 1637. His reign

was one of the heights of Habsburg rule.

Oronce Fine: Was a mathematician and

mapmaker from France (1494-1555).

Flemish: Is a resident of Flanders, an

area of northern Belgium. They are often

referred to as the ‘Belgian Dutch’ as their

dialect, which is also called Flemish is

derived from Dutch. Unlike the Dutch,

most Flemish would remain Catholic.

Forbidden City: Located in the city of

Beijing, it was the official residence of

the imperial family of China in the years

from 1406 to the end of the Empire in

1912. It has been a museum since 1925.

Friesland: A formerly independent land,

Friesland is today divided between the

Netherlands and Germany.

Galileo Galilei: Was a renowned Italian

scientist (1564-1642); Albert Einstein

called him the ‘father of modern science.’

Frontispiece of a 1623 book by Galileo

In January 1610, he used a homemade

telescope to discover the four principal

moons of the planet Jupiter. He said that

this showed that celestial bodies could

orbit objects other than the Earth; he

wrote that it was also proof that

heliocentrism was correct. The pope

forced him to make a public denial of

these views in the year 1633 on threat of

death. Still, Galileo had discredited

geocentrism to most literate Europeans.

Geocentrism, geocentric model: Is the

belief that the Earth is at, or near, the

center of the universe; all of the celestial

objects are seen as orbiting the Earth in

this system. In or around the year AD

150, Ptolemy wrote a geocentric model

that dominated the astronomy of the

West for more than 1400 years; it would

take Copernicus, Kepler, and finally,

Galileo, to refute it. Other geocentric

models had concentric (nested) orbits; in

these, the planets, the stars, the Moon,

and the Sun all orbit Earth in circles.

Kepler’s diagram of the three types of

Solar System models, written in 1604

Geoheliocentrism, geoheliocentric

model: These terms refer to any

astronomical model that says that some,

or all, of the planets circle the Sun except

for the Earth; it is orbits by the Sun, the

Moon, and stars. Tycho Brahe wrote the

best-known model of geoheliocentrism; it

51

is called ‘Tychonic.’ He said that the five

planets orbit the Sun. It, the Moon, and

the stars all circle the Earth.

A Hindu, Nilakantha Somayaji, of the

Kerala School, had written the first math-

based model of this type in 1501. It was

similar to what Tycho wrote decades

later. Many used the Tychonic model as

an alternative to heliocentrism once

Galileo had shown that the Sun orbits the

Earth. Geoheliocentric models were no

longer used in the west of Europe after

the early eighteenth century.

Gnomon: Is the elevated area at the

center of a sundial; it casts the shadow

that designates the time of day. In the

northern hemisphere, they are usually

oriented to point north; gnomons are set

so they are parallel to the rotational axis

of the Earth.

Goa: Is a city on the west coast of India;

it was the first part of the country to be

colonized by Europeans. It was as well

as the last to be liberated from them. The

Portuguese ruled Goa from 1510 to 1961.

Gregorian calendar: Is the solar

calendar used in most of world today. It

was devised in the year 1582 by a team

under the direction of Pope Gregory

XIII. It replaced the Julian calendar,

which was ‘off’ by ten days that year.

Most Catholic countries would adopt it,

but Protestant and Eastern Orthodox

nations did not. Most of their resistance

was on religious issues as well as the

‘loss’ of ten days.

England used the Julian calendar until

the year 1752 and Russia until 1917.

Greece, the last European country to use

it, abandoned it in 1923. In the

Gregorian calendar, years are 365 days

long except for every fourth year; these

are leap years of 366 days. The only

exceptions to this are years that are

divisible by 100 but not by 400; these

are not leap years. Thus 1900 was not a

leap year, but 2000 was.

Habsburg: Was the Imperial dynasty

that ruled Austria, and often the Holy

Roman Empire, from 1273 until 1918.

For much of that time they controlled

large portions of central Europe and Italy.

Hesse: Is a formerly independent state in

central Germany; it was one of the first to

adopt Protestantism.

Heliocentrism, heliocentric model: As

defined by Copernicus, this is the view

that the Earth and the other planets all

orbit the Sun. It, he said was at, or near,

the center of the universe. In the third

century BC, the Greek, Aristarchus of

Samos, had written the first math-based

model that the Earth orbits the Sun; for

the next two millennia, only a few did

not reject it.

Thomas Digges’ diagram of the

heliocentric universe

The view that the Sun orbits the Earth

would dominate astronomy, even after

52

Copernicus’ model was published. He

convinced some of his readers, but most

did not accept his ideas. As refined by

Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others, the

idea that the Sun is the center of the

Solar System has been a mainstay of

astronomy for the last three centuries.

Hipparchus: Is known as ‘The greatest

Greek Astronomer of Antiquity’; he

worked in the years from 146 to 127 BC.

Holy Roman Empire: For the most part

this was a loose confederation of states in

and around Germany and, at times, Italy;

it lasted from 892 until the year 1806.

The Habsburg dynasty controlled the

Holy Roman Empire from 1508 on.

Isfahan: The third largest city in Iran, it

was one of the richest cities in the world

until an Afghan army sacked it in 1722.

Jacob’s staff: This is a type of sighting

instrument used to measure the altitudes

and diameters of celestial objects. They

can be used to find the heights of

terrestrial objects as well. The Jacob’s

staff is most often known as a cross-staff.

Jaipur: Is a city of more than three

million in the west of India. It was

founded in the year 1727, by Jai Singh II.

James I: Was the King of both Scotland

and England; he lived from 1566 to 1625.

Jesuit: Is a member of the Society of

Jesus, a religious order established by the

pope in 1540. Most were as well versed

in science as they were in theology.

Julian calendar: Is a solar calendar that

was introduced in the year 45 BC. It has

a cycle of three years of 365 days each

and one leap year of 366 days. Due to its

over-estimation of the length of the year,

it had an error of ten days by 1582. That

year, the Gregorian calendar replaced it

in most Catholic lands. With time, all of

the lands of Europe abandoned the Julian

calendar, but only slowly; Russia used it

until the year 1917. The Eastern

Orthodox Church still uses it.

Julius II: This Italian was born Giuliano

Della Rovere in 1443. His papal reign

was from 1503 to his death in 1513. He

was known as the ‘Warrior Pope’ for the

wars that he both began and fought.

Kassel: This is a city in the German

principality of Hesse-Kassel.

Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion:

These consist of two natural laws written

in 1609 and the third in 1619, by Kepler;

the last took him seventeen years of

research to do. These laws were

confirmed in 1687 by Newton. They are:

1) Planets move in ellipses, with the

Sun at one focus.

2) The line connecting the planets to

the Sun sweeps equal areas in

equal times, and

3) The square of a planet's orbital

period is proportional to the cube

of its mean distance from the Sun.

Kepler's Laws (photo credit: Stundel).

53

(1) The orbits are ellipses, with focal

points ƒ1 and ƒ2 for the first planet and ƒ1

and ƒ3 for the second planet. The Sun is

placed in focal point ƒ1. (2) The two

shaded sectors A1 and A2 have the same

surface area and the time for planet 1 to

cover segment A1 is equal to the time to

cover segment A2. (3) The total orbit

times for planet 1 and planet 2 have a

ratio a13/2

: a23/2

.

Kerala School: Was an institution of

higher learning in the Indian city of

Kerala. Its members specialized in math

and astronomy. It was most prosperous

from c. 1400 to c. 1630. The last scholar

there died in the year 1838.

Kesava: Was a Hindu astronomer and

astrologer; his works date from the years

1496 to 1507.

Omar Khayyam: Was a Persian

scientist and poet, he lived from 1048 to

1132. He wrote the Jalali calendar; it

was the best yet, at the time.

Krakow: A city in southern Poland, it

was founded in the tenth century. It was

the capital of Poland from the years 1038

to 1596; it was the center of higher

education in Poland for centuries more.

Ali Kuscu: Was a Turkish scientist who

lived from 1403 to 1474.

Latin: Is an Indo-European language

that was used in the west of Europe from

the fall of Rome until modern times. It is

the origin of Spanish, French, and Italian,

as well as all other ‘Romance

Languages.’ It was no longer in daily use

by the year 900.

Latitude: In astronomy, this is the

angular distance of celestial bodies to the

north or south of the ecliptic. It is also

used to reference north-south distances

on Earth; the equator is at zero degrees

latitude, and both the north and south

poles are at 90° latitude.

Linz: A city in Austria, it was the home

of Johannes Kepler for years.

Longitude: Is a system that is based on

imaginary lines called the lines of

longitude. They run along the north to

south axis of both the Earth and the

celestial sphere. They are used to find

east to west coordinates; Hipparchus

seems to have been the first to use both

longitude and latitude. The prime

meridian, which is the zero point of the

global longitudinal system, has run

through the Greenwich area of London,

England since the year 1884.

Lunar table: Is a mathematical table

that details the motions and positions of

the Moon. They are critical in the

prediction of eclipses.

Luni-solar calendar: Is any calendar

that uses both lunar phases and the Sun’s

position. Most of them have a year of

twelve months and leap years of thirteen

months every two to three years.

Macao: This city in southern China was

a Portuguese colony from 1555 to 1999.

Martin Luther: Famed German monk

(1483-1546); he founded the Lutheran

religion and began the Reformation.

Magnetic poles: The Earth’s magnetic

field is most evident at two points where

the field is vertical to the surface of the

Earth. Compasses point to these spots,

which are called the magnetic poles.

Both poles move over time, due to the

54

dynamic nature of the planet’s magnetic

fields. The northern magnetic pole is at

or near 80 degrees, or more, north. The

southern magnetic pole fluctuates at or

near 60 degrees south.

Mary I: Was a queen of England, she

lived in the years from 1516 to 1558. As

a devout Catholic, she tried in vain to

reverse the move to Protestantism made

by her father, Henry VIII. She is best

known as ‘Bloody Mary’ for the many

martyrs she sent to the stake.

Mathematical astronomy: This is the

application of mathematics to the study

of astronomy; the disciplines were

closely related. Mathematical astronomy

began with the Sumerians, by 2000 BC.

Matthias: Was a Holy Roman Emperor,

he lived from 1557 to 1619; he was a

member of the Habsburg dynasty. The

Thirty Years’ War began in his reign.

Meridian: Is an imaginary circle from

the North Pole to the South Pole. At the

equator, a degree of the meridian is 69

miles in length but at either pole, it is

only a few feet in length.

Mira: A binary star in the constellation

Cetus; it is 418 light-years from Earth. It

was discovered in 1596 by Fabricius.

Mira was thought to have been a nova

until it reappeared in thirteen years. See

‘Periodic Variable Star.’

Model: Is an idea or concept that leads

to the creation of testable explanations

of the phenomena that is being studied.

Motion of the solar apogee: In

geocentric models, the solar apogee is

the furthest position of the Sun from the

Earth. The motion of the solar apogee

over time relative to background stars is

in fact, evidence of the movement of the

Sun and its Solar System through space.

Mughal: Was the Muslim Dynasty that

ruled most of what are now India,

Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh

from the early sixteenth century until the

year 1858. They brought the science and

culture of Persia to India; this is typified

by their best-known creation, the Taj

Mahal. It was built from 1631 to 1648.

Muhammad Shah: This ruler of the

Mughal Empire lived in the years from

1702 to 1748; the realm began to

disintegrate in his reign.

Muslim: As used, this can be anyone or

thing that is associated with the Islamic

religion, which was founded by

Muhammad (c. 570-632).

Nebulae: Is the plural of nebula, which

is a huge amorphous cloud of gas and

dust in intergalactic space.

Isaac Newton: Renowned British

scientist (1643-1725); he is honored as

one of the most important people in the

history of science.

Observatory: This is a facility from

which to watch the sky; they have precise

sighting equipment as well. Many have

research and administrative facilities;

some of the observatories of the era were:

1) William IV’s observatory in

Kassel, Germany, built in 1561,

2) The Istanbul observatory of Taqi

al-Din; it was used from 1577, or

1579, to 1580,

3) Uraniborg, a castle-observatory,

founded in 1576, and Stjerneborg,

which was built in 1584; both of

55

them were on the Danish isle of

Hven. They were used by Tycho

Brahe until 1597,

4) Benátky nad Jizerou; it is the

observatory near the city of

Prague that Rudolph II built for

Tycho Brahe in 1599,

5) The five observatories built by Jai

Singh II in the Indian cities of

Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Benares,

and Mathura, from 1717 to 1727.

Part of the Jaipur Observatory

Occultation: An event caused when an

object temporarily blocks all or part of

the light of a celestial object. Eclipses

and transits are types of occultations.

Orthographic projection: This is a

cartographic technique used to project the

celestial sphere on a plane; it has a

projection point at infinity. In the

orthogonal projection of the Earth, the

meridians are shown with curved lines,

the ecliptic, and the parallels by straight

lines.

Ottoman Empire: Was a Turkish state

that lasted from 1299 to 1923. Centered

on what is now Turkey, it controlled

much of North Africa, the Middle East,

and Southeastern Europe for four

centuries, until World War I. It was a

major power from the fifteenth to the

eighteenth centuries.

P. Cygni: Is a variable star in the

constellation Cygnus that is 5000 to 6000

light years from Earth. It was mistaken

for a nova when it was first observed, in

the years from 1600 to 1626, until it

reappeared from 1665 to 1672. See

‘Periodic Variable Star.’

Patriarch: As used in the text, this is a

leader of one of the Christian churches in

the Middle East.

Periodic variable star: Is a star whose

apparent magnitude, or brightness,

changes in predictable (periodic) patterns.

The periodic variability for light emitted

by a star is often due to changes within

the star or its stellar system. Others are

from a star being eclipsed by another

large object; this is usually seen as

evidence of a binary star system.

Georg von Peurbach: (1423-1461) was

an Austrian astronomer, astrologer, and

mathematician; he played a key role in

the advance of astonomy in Europe.

Phillip II: Was a King of Spain; he

lived from 1527 to 1598. His reign

would be both the height of Spain’s

Empire and the beginning of its decline.

Planetarium: During this era, these

were small representations of the night

sky. They showed only the motions of

the Sun, the Moon, and planets; the

walk-in planetariums of today were not

built until the early nineteenth century.

Planetary longitudes: This refers to the

distance from the first point in the Greek

zodiac, the constellation Aries, to any

56

celestial body. It is measured along the

ecliptic.

Pleiades Cluster: Is a group of seven

stars in the constellation Taurus; its core

is eight light-years from Earth. Under

optimal viewing conditions, eleven stars

are visible. It is one of the star clusters

closest to the Earth. The Pleiades is one

of the brightest star clusters as well.

Precession of the equinoxes: Also

called Precession, it is the term for the

changes in the positions of the stars. It

is caused by the 25,765-year cycle of

Earth's axis of rotation with respect to

inertial space i.e. the Earth’s ‘wobble.’

It is due to the gravitational effects of

the Sun and the Moon. Hipparchus was

the first man to identify this westward

movement of the equinoxes along the

ecliptic through time. He did this by

comparing his maps of the positions of

certain stars for more than two decades

with those made centuries earlier by

Greek and Babylonian astronomers.

He found that the tropical year was

twenty minutes shorter than the sidereal

year; he said that this was due to what

Copernicus would call precession. One

of its consequences is the changing Pole

(North) Star. This was the star Thuban

in the year 3000 BC; it is now the star

Polaris. The star Vega will be the Pole

Star in 12,000 years. See ‘Sidereal

year,’ and ‘Tropical year.’

Prutenic Tables: Were astronomical

tables written by Erasmus Reinhold in

1551; they were based on data gathered

by Copernicus. They were named for the

Prussian (Prutenic) Duke who sponsored

Reinhold. They replaced the Alfonsine

Tables as the most widely used tables in

Europe; they were only marginally better.

The Rudolphine Tables would supplant

the Prutenic Tables after 1627.

Ptolemaic: Is anything that is

associated with the model written c. AD

150; the author was a Greek, Ptolemy.

He believed in a geocentric universe that

was less than 145 million miles across.

He said that the Earth was near, but not

at, its center; he said the motions of the

Sun, the Moon, and the planets were due

to concepts such as deferents and

epicycles.

The Ptolemaic universe

Quadrant: Is a sighting instrument in

the form of a graduated quarter of a

circle (90°); they are used to measure the

altitude of celestial objects above the

horizon. Ptolemy built the first

quadrant; he said that he wanted an

alternative to the complex astrolabe.

Astrolabic quadrants were tools that

contained no moving parts. They were

used to determine time by the altitude of

the Sun.

Copernicus, Columbus and many others

in this era used this type of quadrant.

Astrolabic quadrants were popular into

the twentieth century in the Ottoman

Empire. Mural quadrants were set up on

57

a wall; they were used to measure the

altitude of celestial objects.

Regiomontanus: A German astronomer

and mathematician, he was the greatest of

his times. He lived from 1436 to 1476;

his birth name was Johann Muller.

Right ascension: Is one of the two

coordinate points used to locate objects in

the sky; the other is declination. Right

ascension is equivalent to longitude.

Roman Inquisition: Is an institution of

the Catholic Church that was established

by Pope Sixtus V in 1588. It was

charged with prosecution of Protestants

but it soon expanded to deal with those

accused of witchcraft and other charges.

It remained active, primarily in Italy,

until the year 1870. Inquisitors could use

physical means, i.e. torture, to force

obedience to religious law.

Rudolph II: Was a Holy Roman

Emperor, he lived from 1552 to 1612.

A 1592 portrait of Rudolph II

He was a patron of the arts and sciences;

he was a strong believer in the occult as

well. He was for the most part tolerant of

Protestants. He was deposed, for all of

those reasons and more, by his younger

brother, Matthias. Rudolph died in nine

months; six years later, the Thirty Years’

War began. It claimed the lives of at

least eight million people. The war all

but destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.

Rudolphine Tables: Are astronomical

tables that were written by Kepler in

1624 and published three years later.

They were based on data gathered by

Kepler’s former employer, Tycho Brahe.

They were the most accurate tables in the

world at the time. They were the first to

show calculations of planetary positions

for any date in the past or future.

The Rudolphine Tables were an advance

over earlier tables in that they were the

first to account in full for atmospheric

refraction. They were also the first to be

based on the model of heliocentrism.

Kepler named them after the Habsburg

Emperor Rudolph II (1555-1612); he was

a patron of both Tycho and Kepler.

The cover of the Rudolphine Tables

Johannes de Sacrobosco: (fl. 1232-c.

1250) English (?) astronomer-astrologer;

he wrote two of the most widely read

books on astronomy of his era.

58

Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre:

Was a persecution of French Protestants

that was carried out by elements of the

Catholic government in 1572. The

violence went on for weeks in much of

the country; it is thought that some 5000

to 30,000 people were murdered. More

than that would flee to lands ruled by

Protestants in both America and Europe;

this was a serious blow to the middle

class of the country.

Sanskrit: Is a language that is used

today primarily in Hindu religious

ceremonies. It has been used since

before the year 1500 BC; it was spoken

by the Indo-European Aryans who

invaded India from Central Asia at that

time. For centuries, Sanskrit was the

language of scholars in India, as Latin

was in Europe.

Early nineteenth century Sanskrit text

Saxony: Is a formerly independent state

in the east of Germany. It was usually

one of the more powerful principalities in

the Holy Roman Empire. It was the first

major state in the world to adopt

Protestantism as its religion.

Johannes Schoner: (1477-1547) was a

German mathematician and astronomer.

Seleucus of Seleucia: Was a Greco-

Babylonian astronomer who lived c. 150

BC. He was the only scholar of his era

who supported Aristarchus of Samos’

model that the Earth orbits the Sun.

Selim II: Was a Sultan of the Ottoman

Empire, he lived from 1524 to 1574. The

decline of the Empire is usually seen as

beginning in his reign.

Sidereal year: Is how long the Sun

takes to return to its original position

with respect to the background stars as

viewed from the Earth; this is the

apparent orbital period of the Earth, or

365.256 days. Due to precession, this is

twenty minutes and twenty-four seconds

more than the tropical year. The tropical

year is the time it takes the Earth to orbit

the Sun, or 365.2422 days. See

‘Tropical year.’

Silesia: Is a geographical area now

encompassed by portions of southeastern

Germany and southwestern Poland. In

the sixteenth century, its population was

a mixture of Germans and Slavs.

Solar eccentricity: What is actually the

Earth’s eccentric orbit of the Sun is, in

geocentric models, seen as the Sun’s non-

uniform orbit. The fact that the annual

motion of the solar apogee differed from

precession was seen as evidence of the

Sun’s eccentric orbit.

Solar eclipse: An event that is caused

by the new moon passing between the

Earth and the Sun; this casts the lunar

shadow on a portion of the Earth.

Nilakantha Somayaji: A Hindu

astronomer and mathematician (1444-

1544), he wrote the first math-based

geoheliocentric model. He said that all of

the planets orbit the Sun, it, and the rest

of the universe circle the Earth. This is

59

usually known as a ‘Tychonic’ model; his

work was superior to the Dane’s model,

as Somayaji said that the Earth rotated.

He wrote that orbits were elliptical; this

was also more accurate than what Tycho

would write.

Star atlas: Is a book of maps or charts

showing the locations of stars and

constellations.

Star catalog: Is a systematic listing of

stars, usually with their locations and

other data. Babylonian astronomers

wrote the first star catalogs, c. 1200 BC.

Star chart: Is a map of all, or a portion

of, the night sky as seen from Earth.

Sundial: Is the oldest and simplest

time-keeping device; they are formed by

using a gnomon in a circle that is used to

represent the day. A gnomon is the

object in the center of the circle that

casts a shadow. The earliest known

sundials are from Egypt, c. 3500 BC.

Sunspot: Is an intensely magnetic area

on the visible face of the Sun. They are

caused by magnetic storms that reveal the

cooler, lower layers of the Sun; these are

darker in color. During periods of

extreme sunspot activity, they can be

seen from Earth with the naked eye.

Supernova: Is an event that is caused

by a large star burning up its fuel; this

leads to the star collapsing, and finally,

exploding, from released gravitational

energy. This burst of radiation is

temporarily visible in the night sky and

sometimes during the day as well. They

can be visible to the naked eye from a

few days to many months. Tycho Brahe

and others said that the supernova of

1572 proved that the heavens were not

‘perfect and unchanging,’ as both

Aristotle and Ptolemy had written.

Supernova 1987A: Before (right) and

after (left) (photo credit: NASA)

Tables: See ‘Astronomical tables.’

Thirty Years’ War: Fought from 1618

to 1648, this was the most destructive

conflict in Western Europe before World

War I. It is estimated that at least eight

million people were killed; most of these

were civilians. Most of these deaths were

from disease and famine, not battle.

Western Europe in 1648

Almost all of the war was fought in or

near Germany; populations there declined

60

by fifty percent. The main results of the

war were the decline of both Spain and

the Holy Roman Empire as well as the

rise of France. The war furthered the

division of Europe along religious lines.

Transit: Is the passage of a smaller

celestial object, such as the Moon or a

planet, between the Earth and a more

distant, larger object such as the Sun.

Trepidation: This was a theoretical

oscillation or irregularity in the timing of

equinoxes; it was used as an alternative

to the theory of precession. It was a key

concept in Western astronomy for more

than a thousand years.

Trigonometry: Is the branch of math

that involves triangles, especially plane

triangles. Ancient Egyptians and

Babylonians laid its foundations, but it

was the Greek, Hipparchus who wrote

the first trigonometric tables, c. 130 BC.

Trigonometric tables: These tables

were used to look up logarithms and for

other mathematical tasks. They were

employed in navigation and engineering

as well as in the conduct of scientific

research.

Tropical year: Also called a solar year;

in heliocentric systems, it is the length

of time needed for the Earth to complete

its orbit of the Sun. In geocentric

models, it is the time it takes for the Sun

to return to the same position along the

path of the ecliptic. The mean tropical

year is 365.2422 days long. See the

‘Ecliptic,’ and ‘Sidereal Year.’

Nasir al-Din Al-Tusi: Was a Persian

scientist and theologian who lived from

1201 to 1274. He was the first man to

prove that the Earth rotated.

Tychonic: Is anything that is associated

with the geoheliocentric model written by

Tycho Brahe in the year 1588. It would

be the most popular theory of its kind.

Ulugh Beg: This Turkish-speaking

astronomer and king lived in Central Asia

in the years from 1393 to 1449. He wrote

the best star catalog yet made at that time.

Variable star: These are stars whose

brightness varies in non-predictable

ways; see “Periodic Variable Star.”

‘Western’: In the text, this refers to the

populations and cultures of Central Asia,

the Middle East, North Africa, and

Europe. Thus, ‘Eastern’ groups, or

cultures are those from the Indian

subcontinent, China, Korea, and Japan.

Zodiac: Is the term for the band of the

sky eight degrees that is centered on the

ecliptic; it means ‘Circle of Animals’ in

ancient Greek. It is the path of the Sun

through the orbits of the five visible

planets and the Moon. In astrology, the

‘band of the zodiac’ is divided into

twelve equal parts each 30° wide. Each

of these is named for a constellation;

these are the signs of the zodiac.

The zodiac and its constellations

61

PERIOD ASTRONOMERS IN POPULAR CULTURE

As might be expected in a period

dominated by the culture and science of

Western Europe, all but one of those

from this era of astronomy who have

entered modern culture is from there.

The exception is Jai Singh; he was a

Hindu prince of the eighteenth century.

Giordano Bruno, an Italian priest, is one

of these Europeans; he was burned at the

stake in the year 1600. He has often been

seen as a martyr for science; this is due to

his visionary ideas. He not only said that

the Earth orbits the Sun, he wrote that the

stars were other suns that were circled by

other Earths. He said that life on those

planets was as advanced as that here. He

was well known for these theories.

Statue of Giordano Bruno in Rome

None of these ideas was the cause of his

death; the Church did not outlaw any of

them until the year 1616. They burned

him alive for ‘theological errors’; these

are still unknown as the Inquisition lost

his file. In the plaza in Rome where he

died is a statue of him. There is a more

abstract statue in his honor in Berlin,

Germany. Giordanobruno.com is a

website that is dedicated to his memory.

Another of this era in science

remembered today is the Italian Jesuit

missionary, Matteo Ricci. Like Bruno,

he was a persuasive supporter of

Copernicus’ model of heliocentrism. He

is honored in both Italy and China; he

was the first Western Christian to win

many converts in that land. There are

colleges and institutes named for him in

Hong Kong and Macao in China, and in

Taipei, Taiwan; there are two more in the

United States, in San Francisco and

Seattle. A move to have him made a

saint of the Catholic Church began in the

year 1984; it was renewed in 2010.

Matteo Ricci’s tomb in Beijing, China

Many in India still honor Jai Singh

(1688-1743); he was one of the last in

astronomy who did not depend on the

telescope. He is better known today as

the founder of the city of Jaipur, India.

He built massive open-air observatories

there as well as in four other cities. This

was part of an effort by him to modernize

science in India; four of the five still

exist. All are tourist attractions; the ones

in Jaipur and Delhi can still be used.

There is a museum to Jai Singh in Jaipur.

62

The two of this era that are remembered

the most are Tycho Brahe and Johannes

Kepler. Tycho was a Danish nobleman;

he is still famous for his artificial nose.

He had lost most of the original in a duel

that had been fought over math. Many

sources say that the prosthetic was made

of gold or silver, but he most likely

usually wore one of copper, as it would

have been lighter.

Many remember his parties; his

clairvoyant ‘little person’ Jepp, as well as

his pet elk (or moose) are still celebrated.

Some in the Czech Republic, his adopted

home, still refer to his terrible death; as

they leave for the restroom, some say,

“Pardon me, I don’t want to end up like

Tycho Brahe.” The website

Tychobrahe.com honors his life.

Tycho Brahe’s tomb in Prague

His grave was exhumed in 1901 and

2010; the samples taken then have

identified mercury poisoning as the most

likely cause of the Dane’s death. Works

of both fiction and nonfiction have

suggested that he was murdered.

Suspects range from Kepler, Tycho’s

assistant, to a cousin who supposedly

killed him for the King of Denmark. A

planetarium in Copenhagen honors

Tycho; a spacecraft that a private firm in

Denmark is building is also named for

him. Stjerneborg, an observatory he built

on the Danish isle of Hven, was

excavated in the 1950s; it has been

restored and is open to visitors. The

second, larger observatory there,

Uraniborg, is also being restored.

The idea that Johannes Kepler killed

Tycho is spurned by most; he is one of

the most revered men in science. Some

call him the ‘Central figure of the

Scientific Revolution.’ Kepler is honored

across the world, and beyond. In 2009,

NASA launched a space telescope named

for him; in 2011, the European Space

Agency named a space vehicle for him.

A mountain range in New Zealand bears

his name, as do to two operas. In Linz,

Austria, which was his home for years, is

a university named in his honor; a college

in Seattle, Washington also bears his

name. Johanneskepler.com is a website

to his memory. The town of Weil der

Stadt, Germany, his birthplace, calls

itself, ‘The Kepler Town.’ The Episcopal

Church of the United States honors both

Kepler and Copernicus with a feast day

on May 23.

Statue in Prague of Tycho and Kepler

63

ASTRONOMICAL FEATURES AND SPACECRAFT NAMED FOR PERIOD

ASTRONOMERS

Johann Bayer: Lunar crater Bayer.

Tycho Brahe: Lunar crater Tycho,

Martian crater Tycho, asteroid 1677

Tycho Brahe, asteroid 1678 Hven, and

HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe (the first attempt

to launch a private manned spacecraft).

Giordano Bruno: Lunar crater Bruno,

and asteroid 5148 Giordano.

Joost Burgi: Lunar crater Bergius, and

asteroid 2481 Burgi.

Christopher Clavius: Lunar crater

Clavius.

Peter Cruger: Lunar crater Cruger.

David Fabricius: Lunar crater Fabricius.

Gemma Frisius: Lunar crater Frisius.

William Gilbert: Lunar crater Gilbert; it

also named for Grove Karl Gilbert (1843-

1918).

Paul Hainzel: Lunar crater Hainzel.

Tadeas Hajek: Lunar crater Hagecius,

and asteroid 1995 Hajek.

Johannes Kepler: Lunar crater Kepler,

Martian crater Kepler, asteroid 1134

Kepler, asteroid 3258 Somnium, Kepler

Space Telescope, which NASA launched

in 2009; and ‘Kepler automatic transfer

vehicle’ of the European Space Agency.

Pieter Keyser: Asteroid Pietkeyser

10655.

Philippus Lansbergen: Lunar crater

Lansberg.

Aloysius Lilius: Lunar crater Lilius, and

asteroid 2346 Lilio.

Longomontanus: Lunar crater

Longomontanus.

Michael Maestlin: Lunar crater

Maestlin, lunar feature Rimae Maestlin,

and asteroid 11771 Maestlin.

Giovanni Magini: Lunar crater

Maginus.

Simon Marius: Lunar crater Marius,

lunar feature Rima Marius, and Marius

Regio, part of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.

Metius: Lunar crater Metius.

Pedro Nunes: Lunar crater Nonius.

Alessandro Piccolomini: Lunar crater

Piccolomini.

Pietro Pitati: Lunar crater Pitatus.

Nicolaus Reimers: Lunar crater

Reimarus.

Erasmus Reinhold: Lunar crater

Reinhold.

Georg Rheticus: Lunar crater Rhaeticus,

and asteroid 15949 Rhaeticus.

Matteo Ricci: Lunar crater Riccius.

Christoph Rothmann: Lunar crater

Rothmann.

Daniel Santbech: Lunar crater

Santbech.

64

Gellio Sasceride: Lunar crater

Sasserides.

Johannes Stadius: Lunar crater Stadius.

William IV of Hesse-Kassel: Lunar

crater Wilhelm.

The Moon in eclipse; Tycho crater is on the lower left.

The Kepler Space Orbital Observatory; it was launched in 2009.

65

Selected Bibliography

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“CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA” NEW ADVENT: Home. Web. 2011.

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed). Cambridge University Press,

1911. Web. 2011.

Christianson, J. R. On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and His Assistants, 1570-1601.

Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.

“Clock Time-Line.” Antiquarian Horological Society. Web. 2010.

Day, Lance, and Ian McNeil. Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology.

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Encyclopædia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by P. J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E.

Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs et al., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960–2005.

Print.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Web. 2011.

Evans, James. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. Oxford University Press.

1998. Print.

Gillispie, Charles Coulston. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Detroit:

Scribner, 2008. Print.

Gingerich, Owen. The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler. New York, NY:

American Institute of Physics, 1993. Web. 2011.

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Tycho Brahe and his assistants observe the Sun with a mural quadrant

THE NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF SPACE HISTORY

CURATION PAPER NUMBER FIVE

WINTER 2012

THE MILKY WAY, AS SEEN FROM THE KEPLER SPACE

TELESCOPE (PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA AND CARTER

ROBERTS)