Certain of the Greek philosophers, however, are said to have given the same explanation, and it is alleged also that Leonardo da Vinci anticipated Maestlin in this regard.( 2) While, various astronomers of some eminence thus gave support to the Copernican system, almost from the beginning, it unfortunately chanced that by far the most famous of the immediate successors of Copernicus declined to accept the theory of the earth's motion.

This was Tycho Brahe, one of the greatest observing astronomers of any age.

Tycho Brahe was a Dane, born at Knudstrup in the year 1546.

He died in 1601 at Prague, in Bohemia.

During a considerable portion of his life he found a patron in Frederick, King of Denmark, who assisted him to build a splendid observatory on the Island of Huene.