URANIBURGH

, or celestial town, the name of a celebrated observatory, in a castle in the little island Weenen, in the Sound; built by the celebrated Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, who furnished it with instruments for observing the course and motions of the heavenly bodies.

This observatory, which was finished about the year 1580, had not subsisted above 17 years when Tycho, who little thought to have erected an edifice of so short a duration, and who had even published the figure and position of the heavens, which he had chosen for the moment to lay the first stone in, was obliged to abandon his country.

Soon after this, the persons to whom the property of the island was given, demolished the building: part of the ruins was dispersed into divers places: the rest served to build Tycho a handsome seat upon his ancient estate, which to this day bears the name of Uraniburgh; and it was here that Tycho composed his catalogue of the stars. Its latitude is 55° 54′ north, and longitude 12° 47′ east of Greenwich.

M. Picart, making a voyage to Uraniburgh, found that Tycho's meridian line, there drawn, deviated from the meridian of the world; which seems to confirm the conjecture of some persons, that the position of the meridian line may vary.