While these buildings were erecting, and after their completion, Tycho was busily occupied in preparing instruments for observation. These were of the most splendid description, and the reader will form some notion of their grandeur and their expense from the following list:—
In the south and greater Observatory.
- 1. A semicircle of solid iron, covered with brass, four cubits radius.
- 2. A sextant of the same materials and size.
- 3. A quadrant of one and a half cubits radius, and an azimuth circle of three cubits.
- 4. Ptolemy’s parallactic rules, covered with brass, four cubits in the side.
- 5. The sextant already described in page 134.
- 6. Another quadrant, like No. 3.
- 7. Zodiacal armillaries of melted brass, and turned out of the solid, of three cubits in diameter.
Near this observatory was a large clock, with one wheel two cubits in diameter, and two smaller ones, which, like it, indicated hours, minutes, and seconds.
In the south and lesser Observatory.
- 8. An armillary sphere of brass, with a steel meridian, whose diameter was about 4 cubits.
In the north Observatory.
- 9. Brass parallactic rules, which revolved in azimuth above a brass horizon, twelve feet in diameter.
- 10. A half sextant, of four cubits radius.
- 11. A steel sextant.
- 12. Another half sextant, with steel limb, four cubits radius.
- 13. The parallactic rules of Copernicus.
- 14. Equatorial armillaries.
- 15. A quadrant of a solid plate of brass, five cubits in radius, shewing every ten seconds.
- 16. In the museum was the large globe made at Augsburg, see p. 134.
In the Stiern-berg Observatory.
- 17. In the central part, a large semicircle, with a brass limb, and three clocks, shewing hours, minutes, and seconds.
- 18. Equatorial armillaries of seven cubits, with semi-armillaries of nine cubits.
- 19. A sextant of four cubits radius.
- 20. A geometrical square of iron, with an intercepted quadrant of five cubits, and divided into fifteen seconds.
- 21. A quadrant of four cubits radius, shewing ten seconds, with an azimuth circle.
- 22. Zodiacal armillaries of brass, with steel meridians, three cubits in diameter.
- 23. A sextant of brass, kept together by screws, and capable of being taken to pieces for travelling with. Its radius was four cubits.
- 24. A moveable armillary sphere, three cubits in diameter.
- 25. A quadrant of solid brass, one cubit radius, and divided into minutes by Nonian circles.
- 26. An astronomical radius of solid brass, three cubits long.
- 27. An astronomical ring of brass, a cubit in diameter.
- 28. A small brass astrolabe.