In 1624 Kepler went to Vienna, in the hopes of getting money to complete
the Rudolphine Tables, but was obliged to be satisfied with the sum of
6000 florins and with recommendatory letters to the States of Suabia,
from whom he also collected some money due to the emperor. On his return
he revisited the University of Tubingen, where he found his old
preceptor, Mästlin, still alive, but almost worn out with old age.
Mästlin had well deserved the regard Kepler always appears to have
entertained for him; he had treated him with great liberality whilst at
the University, where he refused to receive any remuneration for his
instruction. Kepler took every opportunity of shewing his gratitude;
even whilst he was struggling with poverty he contrived to send his old
master a handsome silver cup, in acknowledging the receipt of which
Mästlin says,—"Your mother had taken it into her head that you owed me
two hundred florins, and had brought fifteen florins and a chandelier
towards reducing the debt, which I advised her to send to you. I asked
her to stay to dinner, which she refused: however, we handselled your
cup, as you know she is of a thirsty temperament."
The publication of the Rudolphine Tables, which Kepler always had so
much at heart, was again delayed, notwithstanding the recent grant, by
the disturbances arising out of the two parties into which the
Reformation had divided the whole of Germany. Kepler's library was
sealed up by desire of the Jesuits, and nothing but his connexion with
the Imperial Court secured to him his own personal indemnity. Then
followed a popular insurrection, and the peasantry blockaded Linz, so
that it was not until 1627 that these celebrated tables finally made
their appearance, the earliest calculated on the supposition that the
planets move in elliptic orbits. Ptolemy's tables had been succeeded by
the "Alphonsine," so called from Alphonso, King of Castile, who, in the
thirteenth century, was an enlightened patron of astronomy. After the
discoveries of Copernicus, these again made way for the Prussian, or
Prutenic tables, calculated by his pupils Reinhold and Rheticus. These
remained in use till the observations of Tycho Brahe showed their
insufficiency, and Kepler's new theories enabled him to improve upon
them. The necessary types for these tables were cast at Kepler's own
expense. They are divided into four parts, the first and third
containing a variety of logarithmic and other tables, for the purpose of
facilitating astronomical calculations. In the second are tables of the
elements of the sun, moon, and planets. The fourth gives the places of
1000 stars as determined by Tycho, and also at the end his table of
refractions, which appears to have been different for the sun, moon, and
stars. Tycho Brahe assumed the horizontal refraction of the sun to be 7´
30´´, of the moon 8´, and of the other stars 3´. He considered all
refraction of the atmosphere to be insensible above 45° of altitude, and
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