Quark writes:
In 1563 there was a conjunction of the two bright planets,
Jupiter and Saturn. With only a pair of compasses, Tycho Brahe,
by pointing one arm at Jupiter and the other at Saturn, was able
to find the angular distance between them....
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It is the year 1571, when Tycho was 25, and the turning point
for Tycho's life. He noticed a bright new star in the constellation
of Cassiopeia. It blazed out in November. He described it in his
book, De Stella Novis (On the New Star):
"In the evening, after sunset, I noticed a new and unusual star,
surpassing all the others in brilliancy, shining almost directly
above my head. Since I had, from boyhood, known all the stars
in the heavens perfectly, it was quite evident to me that there
had never before been a star in that place, even the smallest,
to say nothing of a star so conspicuously bright as this.
But when I observed that others, too, could see it, I had no
further doubts. A miracle indeed, either the greatest that has
occurred in the whole range of nature since the beginning of the
world, or one certainly that is to be classed with those attested
by the Holy Oracles."
So what was so special about this new star? The fact that
according to Aristotle, the heavens are changeless. Yet this
star was more than intrusive; you could see it in daylight!
We now know it as Tycho's star.
This star turned out to be nothing more, nor less then a supernova.
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http://www.angelfire.com/ok/TheDeepSkies/TychoBrahe.html
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