Historical comet observations in China
Overview of Chinese records of comets
Chinese records of comets are the most extensive and accurate in existence from the ancient and medieval periods and stretch back across three millennia. Records exist at least as far back as 613 BC, and records may have been kept for many centuries earlier. There are continuous records all the way through to the nineteenth century and use substantially consistent methods throughout. Chinese data accuracy is unsurpassed in the ancient world and was not overtaken by Western accuracy until the fifteenth century or, in some respects, the twentieth century.
Comets were observed in great detail because of their astrological significance. However, these observations are now of great use to modern astronomers. Their accuracy is sufficient to allow the calculation of orbital elements, and modern astronomers have done this for many comets. Most notably, ancient orbits of Halley's Comet have been determined using Chinese records, a feat not possible solely from modern data because of a close approach of the comet to Earth in the ninth century. Such close approaches cause comet orbits to change abruptly, and ancient changes of that sort cannot be accurately modelled from the comet's present-day orbital data.
Chinese records
Ancient Chinese records of comet observations are the most extensive historical records in existence.
“Historical comet observations in China” enters the record as overview of Chinese records of comets. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Historical, comet and observations can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Historical comet observations in China” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.