PC-Sky
Scenario: Crab Supernova of 1054 AD
Imagine waking just before dawn and
being greeted by a brilliant new star only a few degrees from
the moon! This "guest star" was so bright as to be
clearly visible even in daylight.
This following account, dated
July 4, 1054 AD, describes a star that suddenly appeared near
Zeta Tauri. "In the 1st year of the period Chih-ho, the 5th
moon, the day chi-ch'ou, a guest star appeared... After more
than a year it gradually became invisible..." Similar
accounts have been found in other historical Chinese writings,
and pictographs found in the American southwest may also depict
the supernova.
Today,
the Crab Nebula appears in the sky as an oval, hazy patch that
became the first entry in the catalog of such objects by the
comet hunter Messier (M1). He kept this catalog so that he would
not confuse nebulae with the comets he was looking for. Only
long exxposure photographs reveal the intricate details that
gave this nebula it name. Modern observations also reveal the
Crab to be an expanding cloud of glowing gas. If we extrapolate
the expansion backward in time we find that it must have begun
explosively around 900 years ago. Could this be the remains of a
supernova?
It
seems clear that the Crab nebula we see at this location is the
remains of the supernova of 1054 AD. Use the scenario below to
see how the supernova appeared that year. To find the modern
Crab nebula set the date/time for a January evening, erase the
user file name, and find "crab".
Scenario:
Crab Supernova
Location: Yosemite Park
Longitude: 119:30
Latitude: 31:50
Time Zone: PST
Date: July 5, 1054
Time: 4:00
Setting: Desert/Mountain
Precession: Rigorous
User File Name: crabsn.dat
(supplied with PC-Sky)
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