The Astronomer and the Moose

Tycho Brahe was the greatest astronomical observer of the sixteenth century. Working without a telescope — because it hadn't been invented yet — he mapped the positions of the stars with a precision no one would match for a hundred years. Kings funded him. He built an observatory on his own island. His data would later allow Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion.

He also lost his nose in a sword duel over who was better at mathematics.

This happened in 1566, at a party in Rostock. For the remaining thirty-five years of his life, Brahe wore a prosthetic made of copper and brass, affixed to his face with paste. He carried this off with total dignity, which is remarkable given the circumstances of his daily life. At his observatory on the island of Hven, he employed a dwarf named Jepp who sat under the dinner table during meals. Brahe believed Jepp was clairvoyant and consulted him regularly.

He also kept a tame moose. The moose lived indoors and accompanied Brahe around the estate like a very large, very strange dog. In 1591, Brahe lent the moose to a nobleman for a party at Landskrona castle.

The moose found the beer. No one stopped it. It drank a great deal of the beer. Then it attempted the stairs.

It did not survive.