Merry Christmas!

Answering listener questions as well as some long standing FAQs. Enjoy!

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After years of struggle, Johannes Kepler finally had the tools and data to wage what he called his “War with Mars.” Rejecting ancient assumptions he used Tycho Brahe’s observations to discover his first two laws of planetary motion. His New Astronomy not only redefined celestial mechanics but transformed astronomy from a geometric art into a true physical science.

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In 1600, Johannes Kepler arrived at Tycho Brahe’s castle hoping to escape religious persecution and gain access to the most precise astronomical data in Europe. Their relationship was strained by clashing temperaments — Tycho’s secrecy and pride meeting Kepler’s impatience and ambition — yet their collaboration began to bear fruit as Kepler tackled problems of planetary motion and optical theory. Despite constant uncertainty, Kepler’s time at Benátky marked the beginning of a partnership that would reshape astronomy and set him on the path toward his greatest discoveries.

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Johannes Kepler rose from a difficult childhood to become a brilliant but unconventional student, deeply influenced by his Lutheran faith, Copernican astronomy, and a belief in divine harmony within the cosmos. In Graz he developed his bold first theory, published in Mysterium Cosmographicum, which linked the orbits of the planets to the five Platonic solids and made him one of the earliest open defenders of heliocentrism. Facing religious persecution and desperate for accurate data, Kepler set out to join Tycho Brahe in Prague, convinced that Tycho’s observations were the key to uncovering the universe’s hidden order.

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Tycho Brahe’s observations of the Great Comet of 1577 and his discovery of atmospheric refraction led him to reject solid celestial spheres and reassess the structure of the cosmos. Seeking an alternative to both the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, he developed a geo-heliocentric model in which the Sun orbited the Earth while the planets orbited the Sun, a theory he supported with years of precise measurements, including a (mistaken) parallax for Mars. Though he failed to find definitive proof, Tycho’s tireless pursuit of accuracy and his revolutionary instruments laid the groundwork for the astronomical breakthroughs that would follow.

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In 1576, Tycho Brahe was offered something no astronomer had ever received before: an island of his own. On the remote Baltic isle of Hven, Tycho set out to build the most advanced observatory in Europe. But just as construction began, a brilliant comet appeared in the night sky. For Tycho, it was more than a celestial spectacle: it was a chance to test Aristotle, challenge old ideas, and prove that careful observation could overturn centuries of dogma. This episode traces Tycho’s transformation from wandering scholar to scientific institution, as he turns a lonely island into the centre of the astronomical world.

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13/06/25 - Episode was removed due to audio errors and reuploaded. Sorry!

In 1572, a mysterious new star appeared in the sky, defying the ancient belief that the heavens never changed. Tycho Brahe, a Danish nobleman with a passion for astronomy, set out to uncover the truth. His meticulous observations challenged established ideas and sparked debates among scholars. But Tycho’s journey wasn’t just about science, it was a struggle against family expectations, social norms, and the limits of the tools at his disposal. This episode is the first of three parts exploring how one man’s curiosity reshaped our understanding of the universe and set the stage for a new era of discovery.

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In this episode we trace the early development of magnetism and the compass—from ancient Chinese navigation to the groundbreaking insights of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The episode highlights the work of Peter Peregrinus, a 13th-century scholar whose detailed experiments with magnets laid the foundation for future magnetic science, and Robert Norman, who devised a method to reveal the mysterious “dip” of the magnetic needle. It also explores early efforts to understand magnetic declination, map its behavior, and investigate the nature of Earth’s magnetic forces. From the legends surrounding the compass’s invention to the precision of William Gilbert’s De Magnete, this episode examines how magnetism evolved from a mystical force into a measurable, mappable phenomenon—marking a crucial step on the path to modern science.

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