Who was Tycho Brahe?
Tycho Brahe was one of the most exciting personalities of scientific history. His big contribution was that with his own constructed measuring instruments, he charted the stars and planets positions in the sky. Instruments that for the 16th century (provided unparalleled accuracy) allowed an unsurpassed accuracy. On the island of Ven he built a mansion whose sole purpose was to serve the scientists and assemble large groups of researchers and assistants around joint research programs.
Tycho Brahe was born in 1546 at the castle of Knutstorp in Skåne – which at that time was a province of Denmark. A solar eclipse in 1560 awoke his interest in astronomy, and he began to read books on the subject.
During 21 years Tycho Brahe lived and worked on Ven. He left Ven and Denmark after a conflict with the Danish King and he was appointed imperial astronomer by Emperor Rudolph in Prague where he died in 1601.
All Saints Church
The new Tycho Brahe Museum is located in the former All Saints Church. The Church was built in 1898 but has not been used for worship since the early 1990s.The Church was deconsecrated in the autumn of 2003 and acquired by The National Swedish Property Board from the parish. Then the work started to rebuild the All Saints Church into a new and bigger museum for the Tycho Brahe heritage.
Inspite of the fact that the church is deconsecrated, it’s still a building where the culture historical values must be protected. The reconstruction of the museum has been done with a gentle touch. The National Swedish Property Board’s task has been to preserve the churchroom’s beauty and to utilize space and light so the exhibition about Tycho Brahe is given the best possible conditions to attract visitors.
The new museum covers Tycho Brahe’s life and his scientific significance and activities at the Uraniborg mansion. The exhibition contains films, archaeological discoveries from the area, reconstructed instruments (sculptured in natural size), models, pictures and multimedia. The texts and films are available in different languages.
The new museum, being located in a church, adds a special dimension to the exhibition. This is the first time in Sweden that a parish church has had a permanent use other than for worship and the exhibition theme suits the church environment very well. The prime motive force for renaissance astronomers was in understanding divine creation, so the beautiful church interior is an appropriate setting for the large instruments that can now be seen on Ven again just as Tycho Brahe designed them.
The Science Centre
Along with the museum, the first part of the Tycho Brahe Science Centre was also opened. The Centre offers visiting school classes educational programmes where the pupils work on various scientific projects. The first activity ready for use is a weather station that demonstrates different ways of measuring weather. Crown Princess Victoria made the first official observation with instruments.
Informationsteknik delivered the light and technical solution
Informationsteknik has installed the lighting equipment that illuminates the reconstructed Tycho Brahe instruments, walls and roof to create a moving atmosphere environment. We have installed video and sound equipment in the two film rooms. Through an Internet connection the staff at the museum can decide what time and in which language a film shall be shown, so they do not need to be at the museum to do this. We have also connected the network to touch screens, where you can, by pointing at a screen, turn the pages in a book and get information about Tycho Brahe. The whole system starts and stops by pressing a button.
If you are interested in more information about the Tycho Brahe museum, please visit
www.tychobrahe.com
www.landskrona.se
Please contact Informationsteknik for more information |
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Göran Nyström, project leader for the museum
The weather station shows six different ways of measuring the weather
Touch screen that turns pages in a book
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