We now come to a very colourful character in the history of forces and gravity - none other than Tycho Brahe.

Tycho Brahe was probably the greatest naked eye astronomer of his time - there were still no telescopes around.

He had a massive observatory built for himself on an island called Uraniborg near Denmark.

He was also a little "eccentric". He was waited on by a dwarf and he had lost his nose years earlier in a duel. He wore a gold and wax one in its place.

This didn't get in the way of his star-gazing, however, and over the years he took thousands of observations of different stars.

He wrote a famous book called De Nova Stella (on the new star).

Tycho believed all the planets (except the earth) moved around the sun.

What is interesting about Tycho Brahe is that he was given more money by the Danish government to fund his observatory than any astronomer before or since!

Towards the end of his life he appointed an assistant who went on to become far more famous - his name was Johannes Kepler.