Johannes Hevelius, one of the leading observational astronomers of the seventeenth century, strongly cast himself in the image of Tycho Brahe. Through the way he identified himself with Tycho and through the instruments he chose for his observatory, he was able to benefit from Tycho's reputation, but this was an ambiguous legacy almost a century after the observations made at Uraniborg.

Hevelius's rooftop observatory in the city of Danzig was named 'Sternenburg' after Tycho's 'Stjerneborg'. The instruments at Sternenburg were designed in the manner of those on Hven and were constructed under the close super vision of the astronomer, as Tycho's had been. The sights, for instance, exactly followed the pattern devised by Tycho at Uraniborg. All the instruments were fully described by Hevelius in his Machina coelestis of 1673 - an account of his observatory published after the model of Tycho's Mechanica.

Hevelius's identity with Tychonic practice in astronomy offered positive associations when building an observatory, but raised questions about the status of his results. This is clear from the reaction of some of his contemporaries, particularly in regard to his reluctance to adopt the newly introduced telescopic sights. Robert Hooke, for example, while being careful to preserve the reputation of 'the Noble Ticho', charged Hevelius with ignoring subsequent progress in practical astronomy. John Flamsteed, likewise, doubted whether Hevelius, for all his work, was actually improving on the accuracy of Tycho's observations at all: 'it will be difficult', he wrote, 'to judge whether wee ought to make use of Tychoes Catalogues or his when they come forth.'