Ancient Astronomical Phenomena

One: the comet attacked the moon

The comet attacked the moon, that is, the comet's light covered the moon's celestial phenomenon. In ancient times, the comet was also called "star comet", "Pengxing" or "long star", the folk more as "disaster star", "Broom Star", people will be war, plague and other disasters blamed on the appearance of the comet. The Spring and Autumn Annals recorded that in 613 B.C., "there was a star comet in the Big Dipper", which is recognized as the world's first accurate record of Halley's Comet, more than 630 years earlier than in Europe.

Two: White Rainbow Crossing the Sun

White Rainbow Crossing the Sun, i.e. white rainbow across the sun. The "rainbow" here is not a rainbow, but a "halo" of the sky. Sun and moon light through the clouds of ice crystals refraction or (and) reflection and produced in the sun and moon around the circle of light, light columns, arcs of light, light points of the general term. The appearance of the halo is often an omen of weather changes. Weather proverbs, "halo three rain, moon halo noon wind" and so on. The ancients believed that the white rainbow like a sword, the day for the king, a sign that the king was threatened. For example, "The Records of the Grand Historian - Lu Zhonglian Zouyang Liezhuan": "In the past, Jing Ke admired the righteousness of Yandan, the white rainbow across the sun, the Prince was afraid of it." Therefore, white rainbow crossing the sun as an idiom means there will be a major change occurring.

Three: "Keeping the Heart"

Fluorescence refers to the planet Mars in the solar system, which is known as the planet Mars because it is fluorescent like a fire, and its whereabouts are unpredictable, so it is called "Keeping the Heart". The "heart" of "guarding the heart" refers to the "heart" of the 28 stars. The heart of the constellation consists of three stars, the ancients believe that these three stars, respectively, on behalf of the emperor and the prince, the most important members of the royal family. "Shouxin" refers to Mars in the transit and retrograde during the turn seems to travel slower, this slow turning process is called to stay, stay in the heart of the host region wandering not to go, that is, "Shouxin". Mars in both Eastern and Western cultures heralded war, killing and destruction, so the appearance of fluorescent confusion guarding the heart of the ancient people did not seem to be an auspicious sign. In the worst case, the emperor would die and the prime minister would step down. The most famous record of the "Flux and Perplexity" is the "Records of the Grand Historian (史记 秦始皇本纪)", which reads: "In the 36th year of the Flux and Perplexity, the heart was guarded by the Flux and Perplexity". And coincidentally, it did come true for Qin Shi Huang. This has also become the mystery of the celestial phenomenon of the fluorescent perplexity guarding the heart.

Four: Mercury Sunrise

The principle of Mercury Sunrise is similar to that of solar eclipse. Because Mercury and the Earth's orbit around the sun is not in the same plane, but there is a 7-degree angle of inclination. There are only two points of intersection: the ascending and descending nodes. Therefore, only Mercury is in the orbit of these two points of intersection near, and the day of water and earth three and happen to line up a straight line, on the earth can be observed on the sun there is a small black spot in the slow movement of this phenomenon is known as Mercury transiting the sun.

Five: Autumn star day to see

Ziji Tongjian 185 BC

"Autumn, star day to see."

In the fall of 185 BC, the stars appeared by day.

Stars appearing in daylight is so incredible that the only possibility is a total solar eclipse. However, total solar eclipses are recorded separately in books, so it is clear that this situation was not a total solar eclipse. So what exactly is happening here?　

Sixth: Two Moons in Conjunction

In the eighth month of the 32nd year B.C.

of the Zizhi Tongjian (资治通鉴)

August, there were two moons in conjunction with each other, and they were seen in the east in the morning."

In the year 32 B.C.

In the month of August, in the morning two moons appeared in the eastern sky, one above the other.

I'm afraid it's unheard of for two moons to appear at the same time in the evening, so how can this astronomical phenomenon be explained?

Seven: Sun and Night Out

Ziji Tongjian 318 A.D.

"In the eleventh month, yimao, the sun came out at night, and was three zhang high."

In the year 318 A.D., in the month of November, the sun appeared at night at a height of only three zhang!

Have you ever seen the sun appear at night? And at a height of just three feet, what kind of a sight is that?