Cassiopeia and Tycho's Legacy

High in the north sky, nearly overhead is a constellation called Cassiopeia. It's shaped like a "w" or an "m" depending on where its at in the sky. Right now it looks like an "m." According to the Greeks, it represents the Cassiopeia, the Queen of Ethiopia. Historically, it is an old constellation. Its stars are fairly bright, but it is not anything extraordinary, at least not now. But one time, this constellation had a very unusual event take place within its boundaries. It was an event called a supernova and it took place in the year 1054. A star reached the end of its lifetime and in a blaze of glory, the star exploded, in astronomy's version of urban renewal.

There have been many instances all over the world where there was mention of the 1054 supernova. It was so bright it could be seen during the daytime. After it faded away it was nearly forgotten, except by some astronomers. Tycho Brahe was one of them. We mentioned Tycho a few weeks ago as the partying astronomer who hired Johannes Kepler. Tycho was quite the character, but he was also a great astronomer and his interest and studies of the supernova in Cassiopeia have given him a place in the history books.

Tycho's was born in 1546 and his entire life was quite interesting. He had the distinction of being kidnapped by his uncle soon after birth. It caused quite a stir in the family. Tycho's uncle had made an arrangement with Tycho's parents that he would have their first born son to raise as his own. The uncle was unable to produce children and desperately wanted one. After the initial uproar things settled down. Tycho's mother went on to have over a dozen other children, and Tycho remained with his uncle.

Tycho was sent to school in the hopes that he would study law and become involved with Danish politics. But Tycho had other ideas. He had an interest in astronomy and was determined to follow it. Tycho was dismayed that the current astronomical tables of the heavens was in error. Positions of stars were off and things like eclipses and planetary positions were also inaccurate. Tycho began to study astronomy and eventually his uncle had to give in.

In 1572 a nova appeared in the sky and Tycho took many measurements of the star. The following year, he published a book called "De Stella Nova" meaning the New Star. The work caught the fancy of the Danish King Frederik II who offered Tycho funds to build an observatory on the island of Hveen off the Danish Coast. Tycho was also paid to be a sort of landlord, collecting rent from the people in the district. Unfortunately he was a very unpopular landlord, often chaining the locals who could not afford to pay the taxes in his basement.

Tycho built a grand observatory, but he excelled at designing and building instruments for measuring the stars and planets. Tycho's time was before the telescope, but he made the most of what he had. Within a short time, Hveen became an internationally known center of astronomical study.

Tycho made far more accurate measurements than anyone in his time. He measured many stars. He also took the positional measurements of the 1054 supernova, just barely visible in his time.

We cannot see the remnants of the supernova anymore, they have long since faded. But just in this century, a radio observatory in England wanted to find the remains of the exploded star, which was emitting radio waves. They used Tycho's data, and so accurate was it, that they found the nova remains with no trouble.

We can see Cassiopeia in the sky much of the year. It is a constellation easy to pick out. We can, of course, not see any sign of the supernova but we can see the area of the sky that once contained Tycho's star.

Constellations

The Solar System