retrograd.io
 
Early modern European · c. 1580–1600

Tycho Brahe's Mars observations

Observation logs from Uraniborg on Hven, published in Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera omnia, ed. J. L. E. Dreyer

Two decades of naked-eye positions of Mars, inherited by Kepler around 1600. They include observations of Mars at opposition, the middle of its retrograde arc, which Kepler used to derive its orbit. The logs themselves are raw positions, not a theory of retrogradation.

Author
Tycho Brahe
Date
c. 1580–1600
Original language
Latin
Kind
Observation record
Planets
Mars
On the shelf · Early modern and modern · 12−1800 → 2026
−1800−1500−1000−5001500100015002026
Span · c. 1580–1600Same shelfThis source’s span

Editions

One edition.

YearEdition©
1923J. L. E. Dreyer (ed.), Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera omnia, 15 vols. (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1913–1929); the observations are in the Thesaurus Observationum, vols. I–IV = Opera omnia vols. X–XIII (Hauniae, 1923–1926)PD
PD public domain

Read it

One digitised copy.

  • Opera omnia, ed. Dreyer, vol. X (Copenhagen, 1913)Internet ArchivePDOpen ↗

Copies stay with their holders; every link opens their site. Licence: PD public domain · CC BY · CC BY-SA · © rights reserved · ? not stated.

Myths we don’t repeat

Checked, and left out.

  1. Myth 01

    Not an established count: figures such as 'about a dozen oppositions, two of them Kepler's own' differ between secondary sources and are unconfirmed.

References

Also on the Early modern and modern shelf

DateSourcePlanetsKind
c. 1508–1514 (manuscript)CommentariolusNicolaus CopernicusMe Ve Ma Ju SaTheory / model
1543 (manuscript c. 1520–1541)De revolutionibus orbium coelestiumNicolaus CopernicusMe Ve Ma Ju SaMath. astronomy
1609Astronomia novaJohannes KeplerMaTheory / model
28 December 1612 – 28 January 1613Galileo's notes recording Neptune as a 'fixed star'Galileo GalileiNeObservation
1632Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondoGalileo GalileiMe Ve Ma Ju SaTheory / model
1647Christian AstrologyWilliam LillyMe Ve Ma Ju SaAstrological