Tuesday 2 February 2021

x/1106 c1

First observed on this evening in 1106 and visible in the night sky for six weeks before fragmenting into many smaller pieces and heading back out into the Solar System, corroborated by astronomers in China, Japan, Korea, Continental Europe, Wales and England, the Great Comet was regarded as a highly portentous omen. Returning in 1882, it is now classified as a member of the Kreutz Group of sungrazing comets (Sonnenstreifer, Sonnenkratzer, namesake of Heinrich Carl Friedrich Kreutz who studying their orbit and periodicity, determined that they were all related phenomenon), approaching close enough to the Sun at perihelion that they are prone to being broken up or made to evaporate entirely. Though no particular boon nor doom is directly associated with the Great Comet’s appearance, such documented observances synchronise and coordinate ancient calendars.