A new star is recorded in the year 386 A. D. as having appeared between Lambda and Phi Sagittarii. Near the position indicated, Flamsteed observed a star, No. 65 of his catalogue, which is now missing; and it has been conjectured that the star seen by Flamsteed may possibly have been a return of the star mentioned in the Chinese annals.
Cuspianus relates that a star as bright as Venus appeared near Altair in 389 A. D., during the reign of the Emperor Honorius, and that he had himself seen it. There is some doubt, however, about the exact date, as other accounts give the year 388 or 398. The star seems to have disappeared in about three weeks.
In the year 393 A. D., another strange star is recorded in the tail of Scorpio. An extraordinary star is said to have been seen near Alpha Crateris in 561 A. D. Here again a known variable and red star—R Crateris—is close to the position indicated by the ancient records.
The Chinese annals record a new star in 829 A. D., somewhere in the vicinity of the bright star Procyon, and in this locality there are several known variable stars.
The Bohemian astronomer, Cyprianus Leoviticus, mentions the appearance of new stars in Cassiopeia in the years 945 A. D. and 1264, and it has been conjectured that perhaps these were apparitions of Tycho Brahe’s famous star of 1572 (to be presently described), forming a variable star with a period of over 300 years. Lynn and Sadler, however, have shown that the supposed stars of 945 and 1264 were, in all probability, comets.
Extraordinary stars are recorded near Zeta Sagittarii in 1011 A. D., near Mu Scorpii in 1203, and near Pi Scorpii on July 1, 1584. It is remarkable how many of these objects seem to have appeared in this portion of the heavens.
A very brilliant star is mentioned by Hepidannus as having appeared in Aries in May, 1012. He describes it as “dazzling the eye.” Other temporary stars are mentioned in 1054 A. D., near Zeta Tauri, and in 1139 near Kappa Virginis; but the accounts of these are very vague, and it seems by no means certain that they were really new stars.
No possible doubt, however, can be entertained with reference to the appearance of the object which suddenly blazed out in Cassiopeia’s Chair in November, 1572. It was called the “Pilgrim Star,” and was observed by the famous astronomer, Tycho Brahe, who has left us a very elaborate account of its appearance, position, etc. Although usually spoken of as Tycho Brahe’s star, it seems to have been really discovered by Cornelius Gemma on the evening of November 9. That its appearance was very sudden may be inferred from Cornelius Gemma’s statement that it was not visible on the preceding night in a clear sky. Tycho Brahe’s attention was first attracted to it on November 11. His description of the new star is as follows—as quoted by Humboldt: “On my return to the Danish islands from my travels in Germany, I resided for some time with my uncle, Steno Bille, in the old and pleasantly situated monastery of Herritzwadt, and here I made it a practice not to leave my chemical laboratory until the evening. Raising my eyes, as usual, during one of my walks, to the well-known vault of heaven, I observed with indescribable astonishment, near the zenith in Cassiopeia, a radiant fixed star of a magnitude never before seen. In my amazement, I doubted the evidence of my senses. However, to convince myself that it was no illusion, and to have the testimony of others, I summoned my assistants from the laboratory, and inquired of them, and of all the country people that passed by, if they also observed the star that had thus suddenly burst forth. I subsequently heard that in Germany, wagoners and other common people first called the attention of astronomers to this great phenomenon in the heavens—a circumstance which, as in the case of non-predicted comets, furnished fresh occasion for the usual raillery at the expense of the learned. This new star I found to be without a tail, not surrounded by any nebula, and perfectly like all other fixed stars, with the exception that it scintillated more strongly than stars of the first magnitude. Its brightness was greater than that of Sirius, Alpha Lyræ, or Jupiter. For splendor, it was only comparable to Venus when nearest to earth (that is, when only a quarter of her disk is illuminated). Those gifted with keen sight could, when the air was clear, discern the new star in the daytime, and even at noon. At night, when the sky was overcast, so that all other stars were hidden, it was often visible through the clouds, if they were not very dense (nubes non admodum densas). Its distances from the nearest stars of Cassiopeia, which throughout the whole of the following year I measured with great care, convinced me of its perfect immobility. Already in December, 1572, its brilliancy began to diminish, and the star gradually resembled Jupiter, but by January, 1573, it had become less bright than that planet. Toward the month of November the new star was not brighter than the eleventh in the lower part of Cassiopeia’s Chair. The transition to the fifth and sixth magnitudes took place between December, 1573, and February, 1574. In the following month the new star disappeared, and, after having shone seventeen months, was no longer discernible to the naked eye.” (The telescope was not invented until thirty-seven years afterward.) Humboldt adds: “At its first appearance, as long as it had the brilliancy of Venus and Jupiter, it was for two months white, and then passed through yellow into red. In the spring of 1573, Tycho Brahe compared it to Mars; afterward he thought it nearly resembled Betelgeuse, the star in the right shoulder of Orion. The color for the most part was like the red tint of Aldebaran. In the spring of 1573, and especially in May, its white color returned (albedinam quandam sublividam induebat, qualis Saturni stellæ subesse videtur). So it remained in January, 1574; being, up to the time of its entire disappearance in the month of March, 1574, of the fifth magnitude, and white, but of a duller whiteness, and exhibiting a remarkably strong scintillation in proportion to its faintness.”
Ma-tuan-lin speaks of a star in 1578 “as large as the sun” (!) but does not state its position.