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Detail of Andreas Cellarius’s Orbium Planetarum Terram Complectentium Scenographia in Harmonia Macrocosmica (Amsterdam, 1660), showing image in lower right corner: “Brahaeic hypothesis.” Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman who lived from 1546 to 1601. He was renowned for his accurate astronomical observations. Note that Brahe has the earth at the center of the moon’s orbit and at the center of the firmament of the fixed stars, whereas the sun is at the center of the remaining five planets. While a significant advance in accuracy, Brahe’s hyphothesis still places the earth at the center of the entire universe. And of course in an age prior to the telescope, Brahe had no idea that our entire solar system is just a speck in an immensely larger galaxy. |