his journey, probably because he saw from the MS. that Tycho had merely measured these approximate azimuths for the sole purpose of constructing a map of the island. By others the matter was, however, misunderstood; and by some the discrepancy was even supposed to prove a shifting of the meridian line between the times of Tycho and Picard; while others have pointed to Tycho as a blunderer in comparison with the builder of the Great Pyramid, who was able to orient the sides of that remarkable structure with considerable accuracy.[1] It was, however, shown by a Danish writer, Augustin, that Tycho and Picard had in two cases pointed to different spires. At Elsinore Tycho had pointed to St. Mary's Church, while Picard had pointed to the taller spire of the church of St. Olaus, built in 1614; and the cathedral of Lund has two towers, of which Tycho had taken the southern one, while Picard pointed midway between the two. This accounted for the most serious differences, and the remaining measures would agree well by assuming an error of 14′, by which amount Tycho's meridian line should have deviated from the true south point towards the east. Augustin even imagined that he had found in the printed observations the proof that Tycho detected this error on the 2nd November 1586.[2] It is, however, evident from the words used by Tycho that he must on this occasion have referred to a recent readjustment (in novo meridiano) of the instruments at Stjerneborg only, and not to some meridian line adopted since 1579, at which time (at the latest) the azimuths of the church spires were measured.[3] The
- ↑ In his éloge of Chazelles, Fontenelle had already in 1710 remarked the absurdity of attributing such an error to Tycho, and Montucla had expressed himself to the same effect. Hist. des Math., i. p. 669.
- ↑ Skrifter som udi det Kong. Videnskabernes Selskab ere fremlagte, xii., 1779, p. 191 et seq.; résume in the Connaissance des Temps pour l'an 1820, p. (385). Compare Corresp. astron. du Baron de Zach, vol. i. p. 402.
- ↑ Tycho's words are (Hist. Cœl., p. 170): "In novo meridiano monstrabant armillæ 15 M. ante verum meridianum. Quare omnia tempora hactenus
