The early attempts to link the rapidly expanding Crab Nebula with the "guest-star" observed in the Far East in 1054 a.d.were concerned, at first, with pointing out that both objects were found in very nearly the same place in the sky, 1 and that the present size and rate of expansion 2 of the nebula indicate that it began to expand at approximately the same time the nova appeared.3 Later, when order-of-magnitude estimates for the apparent brightness of the 1054 nova 4 and for the distance of the nebula 5 became available, the evidence was discussed by a number of persons 6 with the object of showing that the 1054 guest-star probably was a supernova.The supernova character of the apparition could not, however, conservatively be regarded as established, for the ancient records hitherto known did not provide sufficiently convincing data relating to the maximum brightness and duration of visibility to make the identification certain.But with the publication of Professor Duyvendak's translations, in particular the new ones wherein the nova is reported to have been seen in daylight and followed for almost two years, it is now possible 1 Lundmark, Pub.
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Mayall et al. (1942) studied this question.