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I would like to obtain Tycho Brahe's data on Mars. What would be an authoritative source? One source I could find is this page (the data is given as an Excel file) but I have no idea can that be trusted. Does some astronomical organization or university keep the data public? I suppose Tycho wrote his data into a book. Where is that book located at the moment?

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't think Tycho Brahe published his data, Kepler had to convince him to share it with him and Brahe died just afterwards. Try looking for Kepler's "Astronomia Nova" in full text online, it at least contains the Mars data which Kepler used. It was translated to English first time in the 1980's, but the tables might be readable in the latin version. Here's a "study guide" if it helps. And remember the confusing date differences at that time as different countries transited in different ways from Julian to Gregorian calendar! $\endgroup$
    – LocalFluff
    Apr 12, 2015 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ Here is Astronomia Nova in full text for free, but I'll let you search through it :-p. Also note that Kepler recalculated all of Brahe's data before he used them! He used a different definition of the celestial coordinate system, and it might have to be recalculated again to fit with today's definitions. $\endgroup$
    – LocalFluff
    Apr 12, 2015 at 13:38

5 Answers 5

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This must be what you are looking for, "Tabulae Rudolphinae". Tycho Brahe's star catalogue and planetary data published by Kepler in 1627 .

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The page I referred to in my question lists the reference

Brahe, Tycho. Edited by I.L.E. Dreyer Tychonis Brahe Dani Opera Omnia. (in Latin) Vol 1-15. 1913-1929. (contains the observations in Tycho's notebooks)

Now this page is supposed to be an electronic version of Tycho's book. It says

Opera omnia, edidit I.L.E. Dreyer

in the big title at the bottom of the page. However, browsing through the book, I find the title

Tychonis Brahe Dani Scripta Astronomica.

I don't see words "opera omnia" anywhere. Is that the correct book? The first observation listed in that Excel file is

1582 DIE 12 NOUEMBRIS, MANE. Declinatio [MS] 23 7 B

Ok. So, on page 174, it does say something about the year 1582. However, the given coordinates do not appear, and neither does the date 12th November. The Excel file also refers to the Mars sign, which I cannot find from that page at all.

I hope someone could help from here :)

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    $\begingroup$ You seem to have written this post (not an answer, I think) in a different account. Do you want Stack Exchange to merge the two? $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Apr 12, 2015 at 13:25
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Tycho Brahe's original notebooks are kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. A digitized version is available here. I don't speak danish or latin, so I'm not sure if this is the only notebook he had, but it's the only one I could find on their website.

"Tychonis Brahe Opera Omnia" just means "The Works of Tycho Brahe". It is a 15-volume collection of all his works, compiled by I.L.E Dreyer. All volumes except 14 can be found on archive.org. Transciptions of the astronomical data in his notebooks are included in volumes 10-13.

For example, the specific data point for 12. Nov 1582 you cite in your answer can be found in volume 10, page 174.

As far as I know, no machine-readable version of his raw data has ever been created. (would make for a good crowd-sourced science project) I would guess that the excel table you found in your question was created by going through the book and manually copying all data points related to Mars.

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  • $\begingroup$ Awesome! Thanks for the (first) link! :) $\endgroup$ Jun 15, 2023 at 4:07
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https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/162514

Astronomia nova ..., seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae martis ... / Johann Kepler

E.g., the Excel line 60:

"1586 DIE 23 NOUEMBRIS A.M. H.6 M.15 Declin. [MS] B. vno 7 19 3/4 11 65"

PDF page 112: Book Chapter 11, page 65. The topic is Mars position, Brahe measurements.

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https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/162514

Astronomia nova ..., seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae martis ... / Johann Kepler

E.g., the Excel line 60:

"1586 DIE 23 NOUEMBRIS A.M. H.6 M.15 Declin. [MS] B. vno 7 19 3/4 11 65"

PDF page 112: Book Chapter 11, page 65 (as referenced in the Excel Column E). The topic is Mars position, Brahe measurements.

Another source for the actual data is here:

https://archive.org/stream/den-kbd-pil-220022001400-001#page/n362/mode/2up

Historia coelestis, ex libris commentariis manuscriptis observationum vicennalium Tichonis Brahe

Although the Excel references (column E) do not correspond to this book, I believe it is a easier to navigate. Observations are chronologically listed, sections cover individual planets and stars. For example, the page in which the data from Excel line 60 appears is on page 209 (PDF page 362):

https://ia800703.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/8/items/den-kbd-pil-220022001400-001/den-kbd-pil-220022001400-001_jp2.zip&file=den-kbd-pil-220022001400-001_jp2/den-kbd-pil-220022001400-001_0362.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

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