Calling All Space Explorers: 2009 International Year of Astronomy

Checking news from around the globe, I realized that 2009 besides being The Year of the Ox for Chinese also happens to have been declared the International Year of Astronomy by Unesco.

Astronomer Fred Watson in Across the Universe (Sydney Morning Herald, January 6) traveled back in time for the following story:

"16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in keeping with the fashion of the time was also regarded as a competent astrological soothsayer. But when a total eclipse of the moon led him to announce the impending death of Suleiman the Magnificent, head honcho of the Ottoman Empire, Tycho came unstuck. It turned out that the elderly Suleiman had died weeks before but the news had been slow to reach Denmark. In the resulting melee of embarrassment and recrimination, Brahe fought a duel that cost him most of his nose and almost robbed him of sight." ...