FRIDAY SURPRISE: Hey, buddy, gotta light?

Friday, December 12, 2008 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, Completely irrelevant

Over 400 years ago, Tycho Brahe (great astronomer, bad swordsman) observed a bright light in the sky. He watched it for a fortnight, coined the term "nova", wrote his first book about it, and decided to go into astronomy full time.

It wasn't a good way to make a living in those days - telescopes not having been invented yet, which made it a little like deciding to become a rock star before the electric guitar and LSD were available - but luckily enough his family was rich and he could afford such silliness.

His observations, though, were far from fanciful. Modern technology gives us a peek at what he saw in 1572:

tychos_supernova_1208

Read more about it.

-=[ Grant ]=-

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