The Kepler Code
Aerospace · Interactive
- DimensionsSubject to on-site plan
- PresentationInteractive
- PricingQuoted by manufacture spec
Purpose & Scientific Principle
Through a detailed interpretation of the frontispiece "The Temple of Urania" from Kepler's book Rudolph's Catalog, the exhibition allows the audience to find important clues to astronomy knowledge contained in the image and understand the achievements of astronomy in human history.
How to Operate
1. There are six goddesses on the roof of the temple, symbolizing important elements of Kepler's astronomy: 1 is optics, the goddess's shining head is creating a shadow of the earth; 2 is a telescope, the goddess is holding a telescope; 3 is logarithms, her hands are holding rods with a ratio of 1:2, and her head is The numbers on it show the natural logarithm of 2: 0.6931472; 4 is geometry, with her carrying a compass, square ruler, and elliptical diagram); 5 is the lever law and the balance, with the sun at the fulcrum of the balance indicating that this describes Kepler's area law; 6 is magnetism, with her holding a magnet and compass.
2. At the top of the temple is the imperial eagle holding a scepter, which scatters a few gold coins to the astronomer. This refers to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II's generous financial support for the revision of the chronology. Rudolf II came from the Habsburg family, and the source of the family name is Habicht (Eagle in German).
3. Armillary Sphere. Armillary spheres can be divided into two broad categories: observational armillary spheres, used by Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe; and demonstration instruments. The armillary sphere here is a zodiac with six rings, which can determine the position of celestial bodies according to the ecliptic coordinate system.
4. Celestial globe. Celestial globes are used to represent the stars and constellations in the night sky and record their positions relative to each other and to a coordinate system, and are also used as analog computers to solve problems involving stars.
5. Hipparchus. The names of the people are marked on the pillars. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus (2nd century BC) is credited with introducing numerical data from observations into geometric models and discovering the precession of the equinoxes. Ptolemy considered him his most important predecessor.
6. Copernicus. The names of the people are marked on the pillars. Copernicus provided a model of the universe in which the Earth and all other planets orbited the Sun, and the Earth rotated on its axis every day, but the Sun itself was not exactly at the center of that universe. He established the order of the planets and devised a system to explain the motions of the planets without equal parts, but his motivation was to establish uniform circular motion, itself a classical ideal. There is a parallax scale on Copernicus' column, indicating that Kepler believed that some careless error had occurred in Copernicus' observations.
7. Kepler. Kepler discovered that the planet's orbit is elliptical by observing Mars, and proposed Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
8. Map of classical Europe.
9. Quadrants and sextants. An astronomical quadrant is essentially a graduated quarter of a circle (90°) used to measure the height of an object above the horizon and to accurately measure stellar declination. Very similar to the quadrants in design and number are the sextants. A sextant is one sixth of a circle (60°), its smaller arc meaning it is generally more portable than a quadrant, and is used to measure the angular distance between two stars in any plane.
10. Western horoscope. An astronomical instrument that combines observation, prediction, and time-finding capabilities.
The "Temple of Urania", the frontispiece of Kepler's work Rudolf's Catalog, has six different goddesses in the temple, representing the important elements of Kepler's astronomy - optics, telescopes, logarithms, geometry, levers and balances, and magnetism, describing their specific scientific knowledge. The viewer clicks on the figure at the outermost edge of the temple, which explains its character as Hipparchus, recounts his many important and lasting contributions to astronomy, and more.
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