Stargazing: Past and Present

by Sir Norman Lockyer

The wonderful assistance which Tycho Brahe was able to bring to astronomy shows that then, as now, any considerable advance in physical investigation was more or less a matter of money, and whether that money be found by individuals or corporations, now or then, we cannot expect any considerable advance without such a necessary adjunct.

Fig. 16.—Tycho Brahe’s Observatory on the Island of Huen.

The principal instruments used at first by Tycho Brahe resembled the Greek ones, except that they were much larger. Hipparchus was enabled to establish the position of a heavenly body within something less than one degree of space—some say within ten minutes; but there was an immense improvement made in this direction in the instruments used by Tycho.

One of the instruments which he used was in every way similar to the equatorial astrolabe designed, by Hipparchus, and was called by Tycho, the ‘armillæ equatoriæ’ (Fig. [8]). With that instrument in connection with others Tycho was enabled to make an immense advance upon the work done by Hipparchus.

Tycho, like Hipparchus, having no clock, in the modern sense, was not able to determine the difference of time between the transit of the sun or a particular star over the meridian, so that he was compelled to refer everything to the sun at the instant of observation, and he did that by means of the moon. Hipparchus, as we have seen, determined the difference of longitude, or right ascension, between the sun and the moon and between the moon and the stars, in the manner already described, and so used the moon as a means of determining differences between the longitude or right ascension of the sun and the stars.

Now Tycho, using an instrument similar to that of Hipparchus, saw that he would make an improvement if instead of using the Moon he used Venus; for the measure of the surface of the moon was considerable, and could not be easily reckoned, and its apparent position in the heavens was dependent on the position of a person on the earth,—because it is so near the earth that it has a sensible parallax, that is, a person at the equator of the earth might see the moon in the direction of a certain star; but, on going to the pole, the moon would appear below the line of the star. If one were looking at a kite in the air to the south and then walked towards the south, the kite would gradually get over head, and on proceeding further it would get north. To persons at different stations the kite would appear in different positions, and the nearer the kite was to the observer the less distance he would have to go to make it change its place. So also with the moon; it is so near to us that a change of place on the earth makes a considerable difference in the direction in which it is seen. Instead, therefore, of using the Moon, Tycho used Venus, and so mapped 1,500 stars after determining their absolute right ascensions, in this manner without the use of clocks.

Fig. [8] shows the instrument called the “armillæ equatoriæ,” which he constructed, and which was based upon the principle of that which Hipparchus had used. Here the axis of motion, C, D, of these circles is so arranged that it is absolutely parallel to the axis of the earth; but instead of the circle R, Q, N, representing the equator, being fixed, it revolved in its own plane while held by the circle G, H, I, making its use probably more easy, but leaving the principles unaltered.

Tycho Brahe also used another similar instrument of much larger size for the same purposes as the one we have just considered. It consisted of a large circle, which was seven cubits in diameter, corresponding to the circle K, L, M, Fig. [8]; and carrying the sights in the same manner, it was placed in a circular pit in the ground, with its diameter pointing towards the pole. This was used for measuring declinations. The circle R, Q, N, Fig. [9], was represented by a fixed circle carried on pillars surrounding the pit, and along which the right ascension of the star was measured. This instrument, therefore, was more simple than the smaller one, and probably much more accurate.

Tycho was not one of those who was aware of the true system of the universe; he thought the earth fixed, as Ptolemy and others did; but whether we suppose the earth to be movable in the middle of the vault of stars or stationary, in either case that position is absolutely immaterial in ascertaining the right ascension of stars. If one takes the terrestrial globe, and looks upon the meridians, it is at once clear that the distance from meridian to meridian remains unaltered, whether the globe is still or turning round: so the stars maintain their relative positions to each other, whether we consider the earth in motion or the sphere in which the stars are placed to revolve round it.