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Some Statistical Aspects of Historical Chinese Astronomy Records

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New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy: Following in the Footsteps of F. Richard Stephenson

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings ((ASSSP,volume 43))

Abstract

Ancient Chinese records of astronomical phenomena, which include visual observations of such diverse transient events as meteors, eclipses, comets and sunspots, have been used to investigate solar activity, returns of periodic comets, the rotation of the Earth and the ages of supernova remnants, to mention some of the most notable studies. The reliability of the recorded data has been tested using determinable events (such as planetary conjunctions) and is generally found to be good. The degree of completeness of the records is, however, extremely uneven. For Halley’s Comet, all but one of the 29 returns since 240 BCE is described in Chinese annals (over 95 % complete), while in the case of sunspots far less than 1 % of the expected population has made it into the records. Looking at the sunspots in detail, the temporal sampling appears to be non-random: there are short periods when a fair number were noted, and long stretches (up to 250 years) without a single spot mentioned. This is in marked contrast to the comet and eclipse records, which both show a nearly uniform rate of events. However, examining the sunspot records from Korea and China in detail reveals striking similarities. I discuss a number of insights which can be gained from intercomparisons of the various ancient astronomical records.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds and to my former employer, ASTRON, for financial support which enabled me to attend Stephensonfest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASTRON, Postbus 2, 7990 AA, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

    Richard Strom

  2. Astronomical Institute, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94249, 1090 GE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Richard Strom

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  1. Richard Strom
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Correspondence to Richard Strom .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston

  2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    David A. Green

  3. Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

    Richard Strom

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Strom, R. (2015). Some Statistical Aspects of Historical Chinese Astronomy Records. In: Orchiston, W., Green, D., Strom, R. (eds) New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy: Following in the Footsteps of F. Richard Stephenson. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07614-0_13

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