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Torturing Tycho

3/2/2023

3 Comments

 
Yesterday’s In our Time was very disappointing, the more so since I had been looking forward to it all week. The subject was Tycho Brahe, the last great naked-eye astronomer. He was a Danish nobleman with a false nose (he lost the original in a duel) who built a magic castle on the island of Hven where he established a number of the most accurate instruments for making naked-eye observations; telescopes had not yet been invented. His observations of the position of the planet Mars over a period of twenty years were so accurate that Kepler was able to use them to show that the orbit was elliptical rather than circular. The difference between the two orbits was only 20 minutes of arc—a third of a degree—but Kepler knew that Tycho’s measurements were reliable, and was able to deduce his planetary laws. These enabled the positions of the planets to be calculated with a high degree of accuracy, and the true scale of the solar system to be determined for the first time.
 
Hardly any of this was mentioned in the programme. The three academics assembled to discuss Tycho produced a positive masterclass of how to make a truly fascinating subject as dull as ditch water. There was loads of tedious detail about the political and religious background—not unimportant, but background material nevertheless, and the wonderful uniqueness of Tycho’s magic castle of Uraniborg was demoted to that of an ‘observatory’. No mention of his observations of Mars. Most disappointing. 
3 Comments
Paul Robertson
16/3/2023 08:02:24 am

Here is a permanent link to the programme itself.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hnlf

Paul Robertson

Reply
Paul Robertson
16/3/2023 09:44:15 am

The guests were three historians:

Ole Grell, Emeritus Professor in Early Modern History at the Open University;
Adam Mosley, Associate Professor of History at Swansea University, and;
Emma Perkins, Affiliate Scholar in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.

The nearest you get to anyone with a connection to science is Emma Perkins, and that's only 'Philosophy of Science'.

However, on the podcast version of the programme you get an extra 10 minutes after the original 45 minute broadcast version. The guests do go a little way to making up the shortfall, but Mars still gets no mention.

Personally, I find the unqualified references to 'god' and 'astrology' for example, somewhat irritating; the cozy built-in assumption that you can discuss these as if fact without contextualisation (i.e. this was 400 years ago...).

Something that fascinates me is the fact that Brahe must have had pretty good eyesight. You could not possibly carry out accurate naked-eye observations of the necessary precision without it. I certainly couldn't, and that from the age of thirteen. Nobody ever seems to remark upon this in the context of pre-Gallilean astronomical observation. Just a thought....

Reply
Peter Maggs
16/3/2023 11:27:06 pm

Bang on mate. Not one out and out scientist among ‘em. They lost the whole point of the man. First and foremost he was a brilliant technician, capable of the most accurate measurements of the heavens ever made. As you say, his eyesight must have been superb; he could divide the diameter of the full moon into 20 parts. Of course the skies were far darker then with virtually no artificial light so observational astronomy would have been very much easier than today.

One late point of fact: Tycho Brahe was Judi Dench’s great xn uncle...

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  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
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    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald