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9 October 1604

A new star in the foot of the Serpent-bearer

Kepler, already arguing with Mars, looks up. A light that should not be there sits in Ophiuchus.

Prague

ASTRONOMICAL IMAGENo plate of Kepler’s guest is shown. The remnant of SN 1604 is a later X-ray object. We do not put Tycho’s remnant, or the Crab, in this chair.

The light

In October 1604 a new star appears in Ophiuchus, near the foot of the Serpent-bearer. It is bright enough to be seen in daylight for a time, then fades over months. Kepler measures it, writes it, and publishes De Stella Nova. He is already living on Tycho’s Mars numbers. The sky has given him a second problem that will not sit in the old spheres.

This is not 1572, and not 1054. Another court, another language, another guest. The pattern is the office of noticing: write where it is, how bright, how long.

ASTRONOMY

The remnant is SN 1604, a Type Ia supernova about 20,000 light-years away. That physics is later. Kepler had a light, a constellation, and a book.

Question

How many times must a guest arrive before the eighth sphere is allowed to change?

Sources

Also this sky