Great Comet of 1577
The Great Comet of 1577 is a non-periodic
Observations by Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe, who is said to have first viewed the comet slightly before sunset on November 13[10] after having returned from a day of fishing,[11] was the most distinguished observer and documenter of the comet's passing.
Sketches found in one of Brahe's notebooks seem to indicate that the comet travelled close to
Brahe's discovery that the comet's
One failing of Brahe's measurements was in exactly how far out of the atmosphere the comet was, and he was unable to supply meaningful and correct figures for this distance;
Brahe's finding that comets were heavenly objects, while widely accepted, was the cause of debate up until and during the seventeenth century, with many theories circulating within the astronomical community.
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Tycho Brahe
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Observations by Brahe of the Great Comet of 1577
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Richard Goodricke, by Cornelis Ketel c.1578, with comet top right.
Observations around the World
Using all the records to estimate the orbit, it seems that the perihelion was on October 27. The first recorded observation is from Peru on November 1:
Several other observers
Additionally it was independently observed by Indian observers
As a young boy, Johannes Kepler was taken by his mother to see the comet.[34][35]
In art and literature
The literature resulting from the passing of the comet was prolific, and these works, as well as the ideas presented by many astronomers, caused much controversy. However, the idea that comets were heavenly objects became a respected theory, and many took this concept to be true.[17] Artwork inspired by the event was also made—artist Jiri Daschitzky made an engraving that was inspired by the passing of the comet over Prague on November 12, 1577. Cornelis Ketel painted the portrait of Richard Goodricke around 1578. Goodricke had reached adulthood in 1577 and apparently saw the comet as an omen and had it included in the painting. Roeslin also produced one of the more complex of the representations of the Great Comet, described as "an interesting, though crude, attempt".[36] In Chaim Vital's book the book of visions, which is a book describing the meaning behind different dreams and omens, Vital simply describes the comet and offers no explanation as to what it could mean.[37] At the time there were also numerous comet tracts made of the comet as it went across the sky.[38] These were made by Tycho Brahe and numerous other astronomers at the time.[38] There were also numerous prints in early newspapers called broadsides.[39] These broadsides shared news about this comet to the general populace.[39]
Contemporary references
The comet was mentioned in the 17th century Vietnamese chronicle Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Book 17, part 1: "In November 1577 (lunar calendar), comet appears, pointing at the southeastern sky, its luminous tail is as long as 40 zhàng with rose and purple tint, everyone was frightened. On first date of December, the comet disappears". Due to this observation, King
The comet was also recorded by Chinese historians in History of Ming, Book 27, Treatises, Astronomy part 3.
This comet was mentioned in the book entitled Sêfer Chazionot – The Book Of Visions by Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital: "1577. Rosh Hodesh Kislev (November 11), after sunrise, a large star with a long tail, pointing upward, was seen in the southwestern part of the sky. Part of the tail was also pointing eastward. It lingered there for three hours. Then it sank in the west behind the hills of Safed. This continued for more than fifty nights. On the fifteenth of Kislev, I went to live in Jerusalem".
In Ireland, the Great Comet was observed, and an account of its passing was later inserted in the Annals of the Four Masters: "A wonderful star appeared in the south-east in the first month of winter: it had a curved bow-like tail, resembling bright lightning, the brilliancy of which illuminated the earth around, and the firmament above. This star was seen in every part of the west of Europe, and it was wondered at by all universally."[40]
"How many Comets have been seen within these five and twenty years, before and after which, her majesty hath ever increased, rather than appayred [adversely affected] the sound state of her body? I can affirm thus much, as a present witness by mine own experience· that when divers upon greater scrupulosity then cause, went about to dissuade her majesty (lying then at Richmond) from looking on the Comet which appeared last: with a courage answerable to the greatness of her state, she caused the window to be set open, and cast out this word [motto, quotation] Iacta est alia the dice are thrown, affirming that her steadfast hope and confidence was too firmly planted in the providence of God, to be blasted or affrighted with those beams, which either had a ground in nature whereupon to rise, or at least no warrant out of scripture, to portend the mishaps of Princes. Behold a woman and a Queen, which seem to be the kinds and callings, upon which the Comets (if Astrologers speak truth) are wont to prey: and yet not only she relenteth not to common fear, but insulteth rather upon common folly. That the Comets hinder not the lives of Princes, I have proved heretofore at large, and shall have opportunity likewise to confirm hereafter, but thus much I dare affirm, that albeit the malice of the same were no less to be feared then some think: yet her contented mind, her harmless thoughts, her temperance in diet, abstinence from excess of all things that offend, with moderation of exercise, were enough to verify that proverb which hath been rife of old, Sapiens domabitur astris [‘the wise subdue the stars’]."
Queen Elizabeth's audacity in demonstratively placing her trust in God's protection, rather than fearing the comet as a bad omen to princes such as her, was a significant rejection of comets as heavenly signs of misfortune to follow. The anecdote was cited in an anonymous pamphlet prompted by the Great Comet of 1680, The Petitioning-comet, or, A Brief chronology of all the famous comets and their events that have happen'd from the birth of Christ, to this very day : together with a modest enquiry into this present comet.
Notes
- S2CID 209912868.
- ^ Hale, Alan (2020-11-08). "Comet of the Week: "Tycho Brahe's Comet" C/1577 V1". RocketSTEM. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ "COMET NAMES AND DESIGNATIONS". www.icq.eps.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ Grant, p. 305
- ^ Moritz Valentin Steinmetz: Von dem Cometen welcher im November des 1577. Jars erstlich erschienen, und noch am Himmel zusehen ist, wie er von Abend und Mittag, gegen Morgen und Mitternacht zu, seinen Fortgang gehabt, Observirt und beschrieben in Leipzig ..., Gedruckt bey Nickel Nerlich Formschneider, 1577 [1] Archived 2015-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Story of the Two Astronomers Who Studied the Great Comet of 1577". Interesting Engineering. September 5, 2016.
- ^ Barker, P., & Goldstein, B. R. (2001). Theological foundations of Keplers astronomy. Ithaca, NY.
- ^ Robert S. Westman, "The Comet and the Cosmos: Kepler, Mästlin, and the Copernican Hypothesis", in The Reception of Copernicus' Heliocentric Theory: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the Nicolas Copernicus Committee of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, Torun, Poland, 1973 (Springer, 1973), pp. 10 and 28. For a description and reproduction of Helisaeus Roeslin's diagram, see pp. 28–29 online.
- ^ NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris 2023-2030
- ^ Seargent, p. 105
- ^ a b Grant, p. 305
- ^ "The comet of 1577". Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
- ^ Gilster, p. 100
- ^ a b Gingerich, Owen (1977). Tycho Brahe and the great comet of 1577. pp. 452–458.
- ^ a b Seargent, p. 107
- ^ NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris 2023-2030
- ^ a b c "The Galileo Project". Retrieved 25 March 2007.
- ^ Lang, p. 240
- ^ S2CID 209912868.
- ^ Ginette Vagenheim (2014). "Une description inédite de la grande comète de 1577 par Pirro Ligorio avec une note sur la rédaction des Antichità Romane à la cour du duc Alphonse II de Ferrare". La Festa delle Arti (in French): 304–305.
- ^ Rao, Joe (December 23, 2013). "'Comets of the Centuries': 500 Years of the Greatest Comets Ever Seen". space.com.
- ^ Moritz Valentin Steinmetz: Von dem Cometen welcher im November des 1577. Jars erstlich erschienen, und noch am Himmel zusehen ist, wie er von Abend und Mittag, gegen Morgen und Mitternacht zu, seinen Fortgang gehabt, Observirt und beschrieben in Leipzig ..., Gedruckt bey Nickel Nerlich Formschneider, 1577 [2] Archived 2015-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ünver, Ahmet Süheyl (1985). İstanbul Rasathanesi. Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu Türk Tarih Kurumu yayınları. pp. 3–6.
- ^ "The Story of the Two Astronomers Who Studied the Great Comet of 1577". Interesting Engineering. September 5, 2016.
- ^ Tofigh Heidarzadeh. A History of Physical Theories of Comets, From Aristotle to Whipple. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 47.
- ^ Gemma, Cornelius (1577). De naturae divinis characterismis. Antwerpen: Plantin, Christophe.
- ^ J J O'Connor and E F Robertson. "biography of Michael Mästlin".
- ^ Barker, P., & Goldstein, B. R. (2001). Theological foundations of Keplers astronomy. Ithaca, NY.
- ISBN 0195637917.
- S2CID 209912868.
- ^ FAZL, ABU-L. BEVERIDGE, H. (ed.). "THE AKBARNAMA Vol. III - PHI Persian Literature in Translation". persian.packhum.org. p. CHAPTER XL. EXPEDITION OF H.M. TO THE PANJAB, THE APPEARANCE OF THE COMET, ETC. Archived from the original on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
- ISBN 0195637917.
- ISBN 0195637917.
- ^ Of Albion, Martin (November 1, 2017). "Great Astronomers: Johannes Kepler". Great Astronomers: Johannes Kepler. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "How Johannes Kepler revolutionized astronomy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ Robert S. Westman, "The Comet and the Cosmos: Kepler, Mästlin, and the Copernican Hypothesis", in The Reception of Copernicus' Heliocentric Theory: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the Nicolas Copernicus Committee of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, Torun, Poland, 1973 (Springer, 1973), pp. 10 and 28. For a description and reproduction of Helisaeus Roeslin's diagram, see pp. 28–29 online.
- ISBN 978-0-8091-0504-5.
- ^ a b "(1) Front cover - Catalogue of the Crawford Library of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh - Bibliotheca Lindesiana catalogues - National Library of Scotland". digital.nls.uk. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-22767-2.
- ^ http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005E/text008.html Annals of the Four Masters (M1577.20)
References
- Grant, Robert (1852). History of Physical Astronomy, from the Earliest Ages to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Henry G. Bohn.
- Hellman, C. Doris (1944). The Comet of 1577: Its Place in the History of Astronomy. Columbia University Press.
- R. Lang, Kenneth; Charles Allen Whitney (1991). Wanderers in Space. ISBN 978-0-521-42252-9.
- Gilster, Paul (2004). Centauri Dreams. Springer. pp. 100. ISBN 978-0-387-00436-5.
- Seargent, David (2009). The Greatest Comets in History. Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-09512-7.
- Gingerich Owen. “Tycho Brahe and the Great Comet of 1577.” Sky and Telescope 1977 pp. 452–458.