The earliest astronomical map

1973, a silk script for divination was unearthed in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty at Mawangdui No.3 in Changsha, Hunan Province. In this superstitious work, 29 comets with different shapes were painted. The long, broom-shaped tail is the head of a comet, and small circles or black spots represent the head of a comet. There is divination written under each comet map, and the name of the comet is written at the beginning of each account. These comet maps are the earliest existing comet morphological maps in China and even in the world.

It is worth noting that the tail of the comet in the picture, although long and short, curved and straight, has the same feature, that is, the head of the comet is down, the tail is up, and the tail is facing away from the sun. This kind of painting is just in line with what Jin later said in Tian Wenzhi: "Coma is dull and the sun is light, so it means late east and early west." Japan's north and south refers to the sun, whose awn is frustrated, long or short. "It means that the comet itself does not emit light, but only reflects sunlight, with its tail facing away from the sun.

The author of Jin Zhi is Li in Tang Dynasty. His discovery was eight or nine hundred years earlier than that of peart Abian in Europe around 153 1. Li's great discovery is vividly reflected in the comet map of Mawangdui Han Tomb. Experts believe that although the comet map was found in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty, it was the result of astronomy during the Warring States period. Therefore, these comet charts fully show that China made amazing achievements in comet observation as early as more than 2,000 years ago.

Star map is a tool to observe and find stars. Dunhuang Star Map, originally hidden in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, is the earliest existing star map in China and even the world.

The star map of Dunhuang was drawn in the early 8th century. It was drawn on silk in the form of paper. It's a star map, and there are two kinds of drawing methods: circular and horizontal. The specific drawing method is that the equatorial region is drawn into 12 segment according to the position of the sun every month from 65438+February, with explanatory text in the middle. The stars near the North Pole, including Ziwei Garden, are all circled. The use of similar paintings abroad is more than 600 years later than the Dunhuang star map. Dunhuang star map draws more than 1350 stars with circles, black spots and circles painted with Huang San, which is one of the most existing star maps in the world.

This precious star map was stolen by an Englishman Stan in 1907 and is now kept in the London Museum.

1958, on the south slope of Shijiashan Mountain in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China scientists cleaned the tomb of the second princess Wu, the cultural king of the Five Dynasties (907-960 AD). 1965, Qian's tomb was excavated at the foot of Huang Yu Mountain in Hangzhou. At the top of the back room of these two tombs, a stone carving star map was found respectively. The diameter of these two stone-carved star maps is about 1.9 meters. There are not many stars engraved on the star maps, mainly about 180 stars in Erbasu and some stars near the North Pole. The upper and lower gauges and the equator are also engraved on the star maps. The position of the stars in this picture is more accurate and the image of the stars is more realistic. These two stone star maps are the earliest existing stone star maps in China.

Suzhou Stone Carving Astronomical Map is the earliest existing stone carving astronomical map with the largest number of stars in China and even the world.

The astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings is about 2.45 meters high and about 1. 17 meters wide, and the star map itself is 85 centimeters in diameter. The map is divided into two parts, the upper part is a star map, and the lower part is engraved with explanatory text, which complement each other. It was painted by Huang Shang in the first year of South Song Guangzong (A.D. 1 1085) and carved by Wang Zhiyuan in the seventh year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1247) according to the observation results in Yuanfeng in the Northern Song Dynasty.

The astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings depicts three concentric circles with the north celestial pole as the center. The outer circle in the figure is the visible limit of South Star, including stars within 55 degrees south of the equator; The middle circle is the celestial equator, with a diameter of 52.5 cm; The common never-setting star is bounded by a small circle (upper gauge) with a diameter of 19.9 cm; The ecliptic intersects the equator at an oblique angle of about 24 degrees. According to the inter-satellite distance (right ascension difference) of 28 nights, meridians with different widths are drawn from the celestial pole, and the longitude of 28 nights is marked at the end of each meridian. There are also two relatively close circles outside, which are engraved with the names of twelve times, twelve times and state divisions. The whole map has more than 1440 stars. In the picture, the milky way is clear, the river and the Han are bifurcated, and the description is detailed.

The astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings is the wisdom crystallization of astronomers' understanding and recording of astrology in the Northern Song Dynasty, which reflects the development level of astronomy at that time to some extent. This map provides us with extremely valuable information for understanding the division of ancient star regions and demonstrating modern stars.