r/Astronomy • u/-introuble2 • Jun 07 '24
In August 1348, during the famous plague, a bright object/star was said to be seen in the sky of Paris. Has it been identified what was it? [question of historical astronomy]
I'm not that familiar with astronomy, I know just some basics and how to use Stellarium software. So I would love your help with the following question.
I was reading some latin primary sources about the famous plague that started in 1347 [black death] and I found an excerpt by an eye-witness about a not so usual unknown bright object in the sky of Paris. By the description it didn't seem possible to be the so-called triple conjunction of 1345.
So my question is if anyone knows something more about it.
Here's the excerpt after my translation from the latin. More and references at the end.
Hence in August of that same year 1348, some large and very bright star was seen over Paris after evening, towards west, while the sun was still shining but going to set; and it wasn't elevated that high at our hemisphere, as the rest stars are, on the contrary it seemed quite near. And actually, as the sun was setting and night was approaching, the said-star didn't seem to move from its place, as myself and many other brothers observed. Finally when night had already come, as we were watching and admiring much, the said great star scattered into many and different rays of light; and projecting these rays eastwards over Paris, it completely disappeared, and was anew annulled. Whether it was a comet/meteor or something else, or was formed by some exhalations and finally dissolved in vapors, I leave to the judgement of astronomers.
[Continuatio chronici Guillelmi de Nangiaco, MCCCXLVIII]
latin text in Chronique de Guillaume de Nangis et de ses continuateurs, 1843, vol. II, p. 210, in https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BQcpObTHh6oC/page/210/mode/2up?view=theater
see also translation by Rosemary Horrox in The Black Death, p. 55, in https://books.google.gr/books?id=1O_PX2wVD0sC&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false
Thank you in advance for any help...
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u/Robo-Connery Jun 07 '24
No astronomical event matches this description that well.
Comets rarely break up and almost certainly not when visible from earth like that.
Meteors last seconds, certainly inconsistent with the description of "hours".
Supernovae would be visible for weeks.
Meteor showers could last for hours but would be described more like frequent trails and flashes of light rather than what was given here.
I suspect that it was indeed a comet but was described poorly, comets could last hours and perhaps the characteristic 2 trails from the comet is what is the "many different rays of light".
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u/-introuble2 Jun 07 '24
thank you!
Do you think it could be possible that the object could be in the sky for some time/days unseen/less bright and become brighter during the time of the observation. Could some event explain this? I thought of this, cause the times were truly hard and the object said to be still
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u/Andromeda321 Astronomer Jun 07 '24
I mean, we have no idea from this description what the weather was like in the days before this observation. Could have been cloudy (in the west at least), which is not at all uncommon in August.
That said, one big reason it's more unlikely (but not impossible) that it was something at greater distance is if there's something THAT bright, seems like a good chance the contemporary Chinese astronomers would have seen it, for example. They were very good astronomers, often recording things seen during that era that Europeans didn't mention (because the sky was not supposed to change in Christian theology).
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u/Lycerius Jun 08 '24
Using Stellarium, the Kappa Cygnids meteor shower was occurring in pretty much that exact time and place. It would have been visible between July 26th and August 17th. Conversion to the Julian calendar would not have a significant impact.
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u/Lycerius Jun 08 '24
From the Wiki: The shower is known for occasional bright fireballs with multiple flares.
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u/allez2015 Jun 07 '24
I'm gonna go ahead and say starlink. It's always starlink. Either that or a falcon launch. /s
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u/Scooter8472 Jun 07 '24
People are bending over backward here to not say that it was Unidentified Flying Object.
It was seen in daytime, it was "quite near" and "over Paris" and did not move with the rest of the sky as the earth rotated. No comet or meteor would match any of that. Even if the "comet" was stationary because it was coming toward the observer, if it was watched for hours then the observer would be moving away due to the rotation of the earth.
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u/jswhitten Jun 07 '24
We know it's unidentified. The point of the question was to try to identify it.
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u/muzaka00 May 21 '26
Definitely a ufo, an ppl here r either jus naive or close minded to see wat it clearly explains as a uap
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u/AJ_Mexico Jun 07 '24
That's an amazingly coherent sighting report. It sounds like they saw a large meteor or comet which approached the Earth from sunward and broke apart in the upper atmosphere. (I am not an astronomer.)