Tycho Brahe

Born on dec. 14, 1546.
He later turned into an astronomer, astrologer and alchemist.

He was quite good at these endeavors, and was very well known in his time, and is still pretty famous today. He is famous for some star charts he didn't invent, a supernova he didn't discover, and some very exact numbers he misinterpreted to mean that the Sun revolved around the Earth. He had a nose made out of a silver/gold alloy. He also had his own island with a very nice castle, for a while.

The Star Charts*: When Tycho was 17, he discovered that the Alfonsine tables were off by a month, and even the Copernicus tables were off by several days. One of his earliest accomplishments was correcting these errors. Of course, this involved many nights of stargazing; all of Tycho's considerable fame and riches came from his talent of looking at stars.

The Supernova: in 1572 a new light appeared in the sky in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Tycho was not the first to see it, but he did notice it before it became public knowledge, and observed it using the most exact instruments of his day (no telescopes, yet). He found that it was indeed a new star, as it did not move in relation to the other stars. (This messed with the idea that God had made the stars on the 4th day and then left them alone). He published a book, De Nova Stella. Despite the name, he had no idea what the thing was. This book made him internationally famous. Because of his fame the king of Denmark gave him his own island, with money to construct an observatory, now known as Uraniborg.

The Numbers: Tycho spent 20 years looking at the night sky, and he kept very exact records. He had books full of data, in which his assistant Johannes Kepler was extremely interested. (But Tycho kept them to himself until his death, setting the field of astronomy back years). In the meantime, he worked on trying to figure out what the planets were doing. The Ptolemaic System put the Earth in the center of the solar system. This worked theologically, but not mathematically. Then Nicolaus Copernicus came up with the idea that the sun was actually the center of it all (The Copernican System). This worked (almost) mathematically, but it was not acceptable to the church. Tycho came up with the Tychonic System, in which the Earth was indeed the center of the solar system, and the sun revolved around it. The planets, in turn, orbited around the sun. This worked out (better, anyway) mathematically and was also acceptable theologically.

After Tycho's death Kepler used Tycho's observations to come up with Kepler's Laws, finally getting the math (but not the theology) to come out right.

Tycho's motto: "Not to be seen but to be" or maybe "Not to think, but to be". (My sources do not agree).

Tycho died in 1601

* I cannot find the source where I originally read this, and so the section on the star charts is partly from memory. Please let me know if you find an error.

He was a heavy drinker, and by the time of his death, had developed a bladder problem.

In the culture of his time, it was considered an insult to leave the table before a meal was over.

He may also not have realised he had this condition, medicine being what it was in the 16th century.

Tycho was invited to a meal at the court of some noble. He neglected to relieve himself before going, and drank too much at dinner besides. The strain within caused his bladder to rupture. It took him eleven days to die.

Also, one of my physics professors told me that Tycho is always referred to by his first name, defying the usual tradition. He never explained why, however.

I'd appreciate a /msg or a writeup that did, though.

The Nose
When he was 20, he got into a duel with another man over who was the better mathematician (or perhaps over an arcane mathematical dispute); Tycho came out of it minus the bridge of his nose.

His prosthetic nose was traditionally said to have been made of a silver-gold alloy, but according to thestraightdope.com, when his tomb was opened in 1901, the nasal opening of the skull was tinted green -- a sign of exposure to copper. (Either Tycho himself was cheated by his nosemaker and thought the nose was silver-gold, or else he had it made of copper and coated with silver-gold to more closely approximate skin color.)

As for fastening method, contemporary accounts describe him carrying the nose in a tin of goo, either to polish it or to stick it to his face. There's no mention of straps or hooks or any other method of holding the nose on.

Other Weird Facts
His life was extraordinary, as he was an eccentric, belligerent, tyrannical, pompous man who had tremendous wealth and prestige. He received extremely generous patronage from King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway, in the form of about $5 billion, a private island (Hven), and licence to do as he pleased. On the island, he built his "castle of the heavens" (Uraniborg), which had a state-of-the-art astronomical observatory and room for lots of mischief. The castle became a scientific center on par with a modern university, but it was not without its idiosyncrasies; Tycho had a dungeon built in the castle to imprison visiting scholars who displeased him. He kept a dwarf named Jeppe as a servant/jester*, subjecting him to very degrading treatment -- Jeppe slept at the foot of Tycho's bed, had to beg for table scraps, etc. Tycho had a pet elk, which roamed the castle freely and finally died while falling down some stairs drunk. He had eight illegitimate children with a peasant woman (Kirstine). After the king died, also of drinking too much, Tycho's free ride became rockier; he was driven from Denmark and settled in Prague, where he finally died of a burst bladder.

* This may not be true. One modern account I've seen says the dwarf-jester's name was Per Gek, and he was only with Tycho for a few months. But it's too good a story to pass up.

This is only the dirt, so I've said nothing of his science. A clear, concise web biography, with good explanations of his scientific importance, is at es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/tycho_brahe.html. According to that page, the standard full biography is Victor E. Thoren's The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).