Halley's Comet, Comet Halley, or sometimes simply Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that can appear twice in a human lifetime. It last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.
John Russell Hind FRS FRSE LLD was an English astronomer.
Biela's Comet or Comet Biela was a periodic Jupiter-family comet first recorded in 1772 by Montaigne and Messier and finally identified as periodic in 1826 by Wilhelm von Biela. It was subsequently observed to split in two and has not been seen since 1852. As a result, it is currently considered to have been destroyed, although remnants have survived for some time as a meteor shower, the Andromedids which may show increased activity in 2023.
The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, known in Chinese colloquially by its regnal year as the Jiajing Great Earthquake "嘉靖大地震" or officially by its epicenter as the Hua County Earthquake "华县地震", occurred in the early morning of 23 January 1556 in Huaxian, Shaanxi during the Ming dynasty.
A mandarin was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea and Vietnam.
The Great Comet of 1882 formally designated C/1882 R1, 1882 II, and 1882b, was a comet which became very bright in September 1882. It was a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, a family of comets which pass within 1 R☉ of the Sun's photosphere at perihelion. The comet was bright enough to be visible next to the Sun in the daytime sky at its perihelion. The comet made its closest approach to Earth on 16 September 1882 at 0.99 AU and then came to perihelion the next day on 17 September.
The Great Comet of 1861, formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a great comet—one of the eight greatest comets of the 19th century.
The Catholic Church in Cambodia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Throughout the Church's history in Cambodia, Catholics made up a small percentage of the country's population, and a majority of adherents have been ethnically Vietnamese; in 2005, around two-thirds of the total number of Catholics in Cambodia were Vietnamese.
X/1106 C1, also known as the Great Comet of 1106, was a great comet that appeared on 2 February 1106, and was observed around the world from the beginning of February through to mid-March. It was recorded by astronomers in Wales, England, Japan, Korea, China and Continental Europe. It was observed to split into many pieces, forming the Great Comet of 1882 and Comet Ikeya–Seki as well as over 4000 small sungrazing comets observed by the SOHO space telescope. It is a member of the Kreutz Group, known as Subfragment I, a split from an earlier large (~150 km) comet that progressively fragmented under the influence of the Sun, possibly the Great Comet of 371 BC.
The Great Comet of 1577 is a non-periodic comet that passed close to Earth during the year 1577 AD. Being classed as non-periodic, indicated by its official designation beginning with "C", means that it is not expected to return. In 1577, the comet was visible to all of Europe, and was recorded by many contemporaries of the time, including the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and Turkish astronomer Taqi ad-Din. From his observations of the comet, Brahe was able to discover that comets and similar objects travel above the Earth's atmosphere. The best fit using JPL Horizons suggests that the comet is currently about 324 AU (48.5 billion km) from the Sun.
CorneliusGemma was a Flemish physician, astronomer and astrologer, and the oldest son of cartographer and instrument-maker Gemma Frisius. He was a professor of medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, and shared in his father's efforts to restore ancient Ptolemaic practice to astrology, drawing on the Tetrabiblos.
Galeote Pereira was a 16th-century Portuguese soldier of fortune. He spent several years in China's Fujian and Guangxi province after being captured by the Chinese authorities in an anti-smuggling operation. The report he wrote after escaping China is one of the earliest known accounts by a westerner of life in Ming China; indeed, it is the first detailed observation of that civilisation by a lay (non-clerical) European visitor since that of Marco Polo.
Gaspar da Cruz was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European accounts about China.
The Great Comet of 1264 was one of the brightest comets on record. It appeared in July 1264 and remained visible to the end of September. It was first seen during the evenings after sunset, but appeared in its greatest splendor in weeks afterward, when it became visible during the mornings in the northeastern sky, with the tail perceived long before the comet itself rose above the horizon. The head of the comet seemed like an obscure and ill-defined star, and the tail passed from this portion of it like expanded flames, stretching forth towards the mid-heavens to a distance of one hundred degrees from the nucleus. The comet of 1264 was described to have been an object of great size and brilliancy. The comet's splendor was greatest at the end of August and the beginning of September. At that time, when the head was just visible above the eastern horizon in the morning sky, the tail stretched out past the mid-heaven towards the west, or was nearly 100° in length.
The Great Comet of 1901, sometimes known as Comet Viscara, formally designated C/1901 G1, was a comet which became bright in the spring of 1901. Visible exclusively from the southern hemisphere, it was discovered on the morning of April 12, 1901 as a naked-eye object of second magnitude with a short tail. On the day of perihelion passage, the comet's head was reported as deep yellowish in color, trailing a 10-degree tail. It was last seen by the naked eye on May 23.
A great comet is a comet that becomes exceptionally bright. There is no official definition; often the term is attached to comets such as Halley's Comet, which during certain appearances are bright enough to be noticed by casual observers who are not looking for them, and become well known outside the astronomical community. Great comets appear at irregular, unpredictable intervals, on average about once per decade. Although comets are officially named after their discoverers, great comets are sometimes also referred to by the year in which they appeared great, using the formulation "The Great Comet of ...", followed by the year.
C/1807 R1, also known as the Great Comet of 1807, is a long-period comet. It was visible to naked-eye observers in the northern hemisphere from early September 1807 to late December, and is ranked among the great comets due to its exceptional brightness.
C/1769 P1 (Messier) is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye at its last apparition in 1769. The comet is classified as a great comet due to its superlative brightness.
The Portuguese presence in Asia was responsible for what would be the first of many contacts between European countries and the East, starting on May 20, 1498 with the trip led by Vasco da Gama to Calicut, India. Aside from being part of the European overtures to bridge East and West in the 16th century, Portugal's goal in the Indian Ocean was to ensure their monopoly in the spice trade, establishing several fortresses and commercial trading posts.
Gerard of Silteo also given as Gerardus Feltrensis, Gerardo of Feltre, Gerardus de Silteo, Gerardus de Silcro was a 13th century Dominican friar who is known only from a manuscript treatise, Summa de astris (1264/65) which is thought to have been prompted by the appearance of the Great Comet of 1264. The book examines stellar objects, astronomical knowledge of the time, and includes a criticism of astrology of the period.
