F. Richard Stephenson

This book is intended for geophysicists, astronomers (especially those with an interest in history), historians and orientalists. The culmination of many years of research, it discusses, in depth, ancient and medieval eclipse observations and their importance in studying Earth's past rotation. This was the first major book on this subject to appear in the last twenty years. The author has specialised in the interpretation of early astronomical records and their application to problems in modern astronomy for many years. The book contains an in-depth discussion of numerous eclipse records from Babylon, China, Europe and the Arab lands. Translations of almost every record studied are given. It is shown that although tides play a dominant long-term role in producing variations in Earth's rate of rotation - causing a gradual increase in the length of the day - there are significant, and variable non-tidal changes in opposition to the main trend.

This book reviews both the historical observations of supernovae (SN) seen in our Galaxy over the last two millennia and recorded in East Asia (China, Japan and Korea), Europe and the Arabic dominions, together with modern observations of the remnants of these supernovae. Introductory chapters provide background information about the historical observations and our modern understanding of supernovae and novae, and of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsars. Subsequent chapters discuss the historical observations of the well defined historical SN and modern observations of their remnants. These chapters cover Kepler's SN of AD1604, Tycho's SNe of AD1572, the SN of AD1181, the SN of AD1054 which produced the well known Crab Nebula, and the especially bright SN of AD1006. One chapter discusses the young SNR Cassiopeia A, and the proposed sighting of its SN in AD1680 by Flamsteed. Earlier but less certain supernovae of the preceding millennium chronicled in China are also discussed, along with their possible remnants. Other less certain observations of historical SN, and the future potential for additional historical observations, are briefly discussed. This book also includes as an appendix an up-to-date catalogue of over two hundred known Galactic SNRs.

This book is intended for geophysicists, astronomers (especially those with an interest in history), historians and orientalists. The culmination of many years of research, it discusses, in depth, ancient and medieval eclipse observations and their importance in studying Earth’s past rotation. This is the first major book on this subject which has appeared in the last twenty years. The author has specialised in the interpretation of early astronomical records and their application to problems in modern astronomy for many years. The book contains an in-depth discussion of numerous eclipse records from Babylon, China, Europe and the Arab lands. Translations of almost every record studied are given. It is shown that although tides play a dominant long-term role in producing variations in Earth’s rate of rotation - causing a gradual increase in the length of the day - there are significant, and variable non-tidal changes in opposition to the main trend.