Denmark 1946 – Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), a Danish astronomer, was the greatest observer of the pre-telescopic era.
In 1576 he built a castle-cum-observatory called Uraniborg on the island of
Hven (now called Ven) between Denmark and Sweden, followed some years later by
an underground observatory nearby called Stjerneborg. He equipped these with
the largest and most accurate sighting instruments of the day. His observations
showed that the comet of 1577 followed an orbit that passed between the
planets, changing both the prevailing opinion of the nature of comets and
smashing the concept of “heavenly spheres” that had originated with the Greeks. Tycho’s long-term observations of the movements of the planets at Ven were later used
by Johannes Kepler to derive his laws of planetary motion, showing for the
first time that planets orbit the Sun on elliptical paths.
This stamp was issued by his native country to commemorate the 400th anniversary
of his birth. As a young man, Tycho had lost part of his nose in a duel and
replaced it with a metal insert; this feature can just be made out in the
portrait on the stamp.
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