Essential information
| Type |
Talks and tours
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|---|---|
| Location | |
| Date and times | Tuesday 21 April 2026 | Doors open at 6.30pm, event starts at 7pm |
| Prices | Flamsteed Members: FREE | Guests of Flamsteed Members: £15 | Royal Museums Greenwich Members: £12 |
| Flamsteed Member exclusive. Not a Member? Join now |
How Tycho's legacy informed Flamsteed and Herschel's work
Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) is remembered today – if at all – for his systematic programme of astronomical observation that yielded the data from which Johannes Kepler would derive his laws of planetary motion.
Tycho’s pursuit of precision and accuracy, supported by a team of trained collaborators and an arsenal of innovative instruments of his own design, has cast him as an early champion of empirical enquiry and a progenitor of the 'scientific method'.
Yet this teleological narrative obscures the motivations that guided Tycho's own practices. What goals did he envisage for his science, and how did his contemporaries and successors interpret and evaluate his work?
By examining the ways in which Tycho and later astronomers presented and mobilised his scientific achievements, this talk considers how his modern reputation as a preeminent observational astronomer was constructed.
Attending to this retrospective appropriation, Emma Perkins argues, reveals how scientific reputations are shaped not only by the practices of the historical actors themselves but also by the interpretative needs and narratives of those who subsequently lay claim to them.
Meet the Speaker
Emma Perkins is a Teaching Associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Newnham College.
She specialises in early modern astronomy, with particular interests in its visual and material culture and in systems of patronage. She is currently working on a monograph exploring the visual world of Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe.
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Image Credit: M44: The Beehive Cluster © Weitang Liang and Qi Yang