n the next year Tycho went
abroad again, this time to Wittenberg. After five months, however, an
outbreak of plague drove him away, and he matriculated at Rostock, where
he found little astronomy but a good deal of astrology. While there he
fought a duel in the dark and lost part of his nose, which he replaced
by a composition of gold and silver. He carried on regular observations
with his cross-staff and persevered with his astronomical studies in
spite of the objections and want of sympathy of his fellow-countrymen.
The King of Denmark, however, having a higher opinion of the value of
science, promised Tycho the first canonry that should fall vacant in the
cathedral chapter of Roskilde, so that he might be assured of an income
while devoting himself to financially unproductive work. In 1568 Tycho
left Rostock, and matriculated at Basle, but soon moved on to Augsburg,
where he found more enthusiasm for astronomy, and induced one of his new
friends to order the construction of a large 19-foot quadrant of heavy
oak beams. This was the first of the series of great instruments
associated with Tycho's name, and it remained in use for five years,
being destroyed by a great storm in 1574. Tycho meanwhile had left
Augsburg in 1570 and returned to live with his father, now governor of
Helsingborg Castle, until the latter's death in the following year.
Tycho then joined his mother's brother, Steen Bille, the only one of his
relatives who showed any sympathy with his desire for a scientific
career.

On 11th November, 1572, Tycho noticed an unfamiliar bright star in the
constellation of Cassiopeia, and continued to observe it with a sextant.
It was a very brilliant object, equal to Venus at its brightest for the
rest of November, not falling below the first magnitude for another four
months, and remaining visible for more than a year afterwards. Tycho
wrote a little book on the new star, maintaining that it had practically
no parallax, and therefore could not be, as some supposed, a comet.
Deeming authorship beneath the dignity of a noble he was very reluctant
to publish, but he was convinced of the importance of increasing the
number and accuracy of observations, though he was by no means free from
all the erroneous ideas of his time. The little book contained a certain
amount of astrology, but Tycho evidently did not regard this as of very
great importance. He adopted the view that the very rarity of the
phenomenon of a new star