New Research on Star Observations in the Chongning Period of the Northern Song Dynasty

The academic community had little understanding of stellar observation issues during the Chongning (崇宁) period of the Northern Song Dynasty. By studying a new batch of ancient star data, this article finds that a large-scale star observation activity similar to that of the Huangyou (皇祐) period was actually carried out during the Chongning period. After eliminating the made-up components in this batch of data, and calculating its observation accuracy and age, the authors found that the observation accuracy of Chongning star data is significantly better than the Huangyou star catalog, making it the highest level of Northern Song star observations yet seen. This article believes that the Northern Song Dynasty was a key moment in the history of the development of astronomical observation. Astronomical observers in this period paid attention to the details of the armillary sphere and pursued precision of observation data, showing different characteristics from astronomy in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The Chongning observations were the ultimate achievement of this new trend.