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Tycho Brahe's Instruments
Much of Tycho’s observations and discoveries were done with the aid of various instruments, many of which he himself made. The process that went into creating and refining his devices was haphazard at first, but were critical in the advancement of his observations. He pioneered an early example while he was a student in Leipzig. While he was gazing at the stars he realized that he need a better way to write down not just his observations but also the angles and descriptions as well. So, he pioneered the use of the observational notebook. In this notebook, he made his observations and asked himself questions to try and answer later on. Tycho also made sketches of what he saw as well from comets to the motions of planets.

His astronomical instrument innovation continued after his schooling. When he gained access to his inheritance, he went straight to work creating brand new instruments to replace the ones he used as a student. Tycho created a quadrant that was thirty-nine centimeters in diameter and added a new type of sight to it called a pinnacidia, or light cutters as it is translated. This brand-new sight meant that the old pinhole style sight was rendered obsolete. When the sights of the pinnacidia were aligned in the correct manner the object that it is lined up with it will look exactly the same from both ends. This instrument was kept still on a heavy duty base and adjusted via a brass plumb line and thumb screws, all of which helped give Tycho Brahe more accurate measurements of the heavens.

There were times that the instruments Tycho made were for a specific purpose or an event that he was witness to. Such was the case in 1577 when he first started construction of what would be called Uraniborg. In that year a comet was spotted flying across the sky. During this period of time Tycho made many observations, and one of the instruments that he used to make his observations was called a brass azimuthal quadrant. At sixty-five centimeters in radius it was a large instrument built either in 1576 or 1577, just in time for Tycho to use it to observe the path and distance of the 1577 comet. This instrument helped him to accurately track the comet's path as it crossed the orbits of the solar system.

A great many more instruments were constructed at Tycho Brahe’s new manor on Hven called Uraniborg. It was a combination of a home, observatories and laboratory where he made some of his discoveries along with many of his instruments. Several of these instruments were very large, such as a steel azimuth quadrant equipped with a brass arc that was six feet (or 194 centimeters) in diameter. This and other instruments were placed in the two observatories attached to the manor.