Daniela Luge (Author)
Gent, Rob H. van (Author)
Markus Mugrauer (Author)
Kunitzsch, Paul (Author)
Neuhäuser, Ralph (Author)
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Volume: 47
Issue: 2
Pages: 136-158
From his observations of the a.d. 1572 supernova and the a.d. 1577 comet, Tycho Brahe concluded that such transient celestial objects are outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and he quoted the ninth century a.d. Persian astrologer and astronomer Abū Macshar: Dixit Albumasar, Cometa supra Venerem visus fuit; i.e., the latter had reported much earlier that comets were seen beyond Venus. However, even from a more detailed Latin translation, the observations and logic behind Abū Macshar’s conclusion were not understandable. We present here the original Arabic text (manuscript Ankara, Saib 199) together with our translation and interpretation: Abū Macshar reported that he had observed Venus in (or projected onto) the tail of a comet and concluded that the comet was behind Venus because he had observed the extinction of Venus due to the cometary tail to be negligible (light of Venus was unimpaired). He then concluded that the comet would be located behind Venus. He also mentioned that others had observed Jupiter and Saturn in cometary tails, so that those comets would even be located beyond those two outer planets – in the sphere of the stars. The dates of the observed close conjunctions were not mentioned; using known orbital elements for a few comets, we found a few close conjunctions between comets and planets from a.d. 770 to 868, but we cannot be sure regarding which conjunctions were reported. While the argument of Abū Macshar is not correct (as cometary tails are optically thin), the conclusion – namely that comets are outside the Earth’s atmosphere and beyond the moon – is correct. This may have helped Tycho Brahe to come to his revolutionary conclusion.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Levy, David;
Wallach-Levy, Wendee;
(2001)
Cosmic Discoveries. The Wonders of Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB000101539/)
Article
Gamini, Amir Mohammad;
(2012)
The Venus Transit and the Order of the Planets in Islamic Hay'a Works
(/isis/citation/CBB001510307/)
Article
Jong Yong-Ki;
Kim Jik-Su;
Kim Chol-Jun;
Choe Chol-Min;
(2019)
Comet 27 P/Crommelin Observed in Ancient Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB580094455/)
Chapter
Hogendijk, Jan P.;
(2007)
Similar Mathematics in Different Cultures: Jamshīd al-Kāshī and Ludolph van Ceulen on the Determination of π
(/isis/citation/CBB001024065/)
Article
S. Mohammad Mozaffari;
(2018)
An Analysis of Medieval Solar Theories
(/isis/citation/CBB892484458/)
Essay Review
Gabriele Coradeschi;
(2008)
Impresa scientifica e Respublica Litterarum: il caso Tycho Brahe
(/isis/citation/CBB791905481/)
Article
Christianson, J. R.;
(2002)
The Legacy of Tycho Brahe
(/isis/citation/CBB000300292/)
Article
Barker, Peter;
(2004)
How Rothmann Changed His Mind
(/isis/citation/CBB000470463/)
Article
Péoux, Gérald;
(2010)
Atmospheric Refraction and the Ramus Circle: Aspects of a Late Sixteenth-Century Dispute
(/isis/citation/CBB001031487/)
Chapter
Swerdlow, N. M.;
(2010)
Tycho, Longomontanus, and Kepler on Ptolemy's Solar Observations and Theory, Precession of the Equinoxes, and Obliquity of the Ecliptic
(/isis/citation/CBB001021801/)
Article
Remmert, Volker R.;
(2007)
Visual Legitimisation of Astronomy in the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries: Atlas, Hercules and Tycho's Nose
(/isis/citation/CBB000772345/)
Article
Coradeschi, Gabriele;
(2009)
Contro Aristotele e gli aristotelici: Tycho Brahe e la nova del 1572 in Italia
(/isis/citation/CBB000931302/)
Article
Serrano, Juan D.;
(2013)
Trying Ursus: A Reappraisal of the Tycho-Ursus Priority Dispute
(/isis/citation/CBB001252569/)
Chapter
Karpenko, Vladimír;
Purš, Ivo;
(2011)
Tycho Brahe: mezi astronomií a alchymií
(/isis/citation/CBB001201947/)
Essay Review
Andrea Gualandi;
(2009)
L'astronomo e il filologo, l'onore e le fonti: Keplero arbitro nella sfida tra Tycho e Ursus
(/isis/citation/CBB347277858/)
Book
Jardine, Nicholas;
Segonds, Alain Philippe;
(2008)
La guerre des astronomes: la querelle au sujet de l'origine du système géo-héliocentrique à la fin du XVIe siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB001021225/)
Article
Broecke, Steven Vanden;
(2006)
Teratology and the Publication of Tycho Brahe's New World System, 1588
(/isis/citation/CBB000670064/)
Article
Graney, Christopher M.;
(2013)
Stars as the Armies of God: Lansbergen's Incorporation of Tycho Brahe's Star-size Argument into the Coperncican Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001200855/)
Article
Danesh-Pajouh, Mohammad;
(2006)
The History of Cardiology: The Era from Galen to William Harvey
(/isis/citation/CBB001510462/)
Article
Christián C. Carman;
(2020)
Tycho Brahe’s Calculi ad Corrigenda Elementa Orbitae Saturni and the technical aspects of his planetary model of Saturn
(/isis/citation/CBB288745910/)
Galilæana: Journal of Galilean Studies
Tarikh-e Elm (The Iranian Journal for the History of Science)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Be the first to comment!