Observation

• Medieval monastic thinkers often recorded celestial events such as eclipses.
• Most medieval observation of the heavens was by eye.
• Chroniclers, if not observing the event themselves, would rely on an eyewitness or other written records for the details.
• It is important to appreciate that this explains the serious attention paid to astrology in ancient and medieval thought.

• Direct correlations were made then by chroniclers of the period between celestial phenomena and political change – bearing in mind that most, if not all, chronicles were written after the fact.
• A comet is a star which is not always visible, but which appears most frequently upon the death of a king, or on the destruction of a kingdom.
• Another example, from September 13 1178, concerns the observation of the “horns” of the partially eclipsed Sun rotating to point towards the Earth.
• This was followed in the same year by a cruel war and terrible bloodshed in those counties, and general disturbances happened throughout England, Wales and Ireland.

Today’s celestial spectacles

• These days, celestial spectacles are seen as simply manifestations of the richness of a natural world that is explicable, at least in principle.
• Nevertheless, despite the predictive success of, for example, the theory of gravity and classical dynamics, there are still problems that remain unpredictable.

Giles Gasper receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK, and The Leverhulme Trust Brian Tanner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.