Tycho Brahe Critical Essay | Critical Essay by E. C. Krupp

Critical Essay by E. C. Krupp

SOURCE: "Observing the Occasion," in Sky and Telescope, Vol. 92, No. 6, December, 1996, pp. 68-69.

In the following essay, Krupp evaluates the legacy of Brahe's astronomical observations.

Once you get past a sesquicentennial—the felicitously fabricated designation for a 150th anniversary—half-century acknowledgments are awkward and contrived commemorations. Masquerading as milestones, they are missing that zero in the tens place that tells you we really have something to celebrate. Ordinarily, then, I would have let this month's 450th anniversary of the birth of that great Dane Tycho Brahe—on December 14th—pass without cake and candle. But I was too young in 1946 to appreciate the quadricentennial, and I suspect that the quincentennial in 2046 may be observed without me. If I'm still around, I'll be 102 and grateful to carpe any diem at all. So, seizing the half century, I have decided to salute Tycho now.

I am not the only one...
(read more)