Friday, March 9, 2012

Tycho's Inventions




Tycho build a castle on the island Hven. The castle's name was Uraniborg after the the goddess of the sky, Urania. It held an observatory, which was filled with elaborate instruments of his own design. One of these instruments was the Tychonian Quadrant. This was a very large brass quadrant, affixed to a wall. Its radius measured almost two meters and was graduated in tens of seconds. Sightings were taken along the quadrant through the small window in the opposing wall. There was also a clock, which allowed the observers to note the precise moment of observation. This invention was widely copied by other astronomers and led to improved observation equipment in the future.


No comments:

Post a Comment