We analyze the Syriac and Chinese sources with critical methods for quantitative astronomical usage, we also consider a few further records from the Mediterranean and West Asian area. A detailed eyewitness record with drawing of a comet in AD 760 in the Syriac Chronicle of Zuqnin (finished AD 775/6) was not yet included in the study of its orbit - the Chinese reports alone do not yield a sufficient number of dated positions. Recent advances in techniques of critical close reading of historical texts can now be applied to records of pre-telescopic celestial observations - allowing significant progress for analyzing and solving orbits of past comets: we exemplify our method by solving the orbit of the comet in AD 760 only with historical observations and then identify it with 1P/Halley. Finally we present a brief comparison with later sky maps, both in China and in Europe. This is at variance with a prior estimate around +940. We also discuss the dating of the manuscript and its possible author and confirm the dates 649-684 (early Tang dynasty) as most probable based on available evidence. We conclude that precise mathematical methods were used to produce the atlas. We establish the precision with which the maps are drawn (1.5 to 4 degrees for the brightest stars) and examine the type of projections used. We analyse the stellar content of each map (1339 stars, 257 asterisms) and the texts associated with the maps. This paper describes the history of the physical object - a roll of thin paper drawn with ink. It is also the first known pictorial representation of the quasi-totality of the Chinese constellations. This set of sky maps (12 hour angle maps in quasi-cylindrical projection and a circumpolar map in azimuthal projection), displaying the full sky visible from the Northern hemisphere, is up to now the oldest complete preserved star atlas from any civilisation.
Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world.
/thumb.jpg "star atlas pdf")
This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript (Or.8210/S.3326), discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now held in the British Library.
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