Abstract
The historical records of astronomical phenomena may play a significant role in comet identification. Getting an accurate result is based on many factors, of which the calculation of orbital elements is the most important. This paper presents a “Cross Reference” method in which the perturbation of Jupiter is the only considered factor used to attempt an efficient way of comet identification with ancient Chinese historical records. In this method, the records before and after the calculated result from orbital determination within the error range are compared with the historical records to find the correlated perihelion time, and then, with five other orbital elements at the perihelion time, the ephemeris is calculated. If the calculated ephemeris matches the historical records, it is concluded that the comet determined by orbital calculation is the same as the one recorded in history. With this method, three comets with four historical records have already been found.
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Zhang, L., Zhao, G. The identification of comets in Chinese historical records. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 54, 150–155 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-4135-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-010-4135-6