Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
The early years (Weil der Stadt, Germany):
- Grim.. 1 of 7 children, 3 died in childhood.
- Protestant, able to attend college & study theology
First position (1594): teaching math at Gratz
- Official duty: astrologer.. successes: predicted a cold wave & the invasion of the Turks!
- Avowed Copernican.... Neoplatonic philosophy driving force.. sun worship, even.
- Wrote Cosmographical Mystery (1595)
Left Gratz (religious problems) in 1600 for Prague
- Collaborates with the great astronmer Tycho Brahe; Upon Brahe’s death (1601), becomes Imperial Mathematician
- Uses Brahe’s data on orbit of Mars to “solve the Problem of Planets” and writes New Astronomy (1609)
- Puts forth many “laws” in Harmonies of the World (1619)