The timing of the 774-775 event has been refined to be March 775 +/- 6 months, by comparing the timing of the 14C excess in new Zealand trees with northern hemisphere trees.

Guttler, D. et al. Rapid increase in cosmogenic 14C in AD 775 measured in New Zealand kauri trees indicates short-lived increase in 14C production spanning both hemispheres. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 411, 290–297 (2015).

This date agrees quite well with dated chinese observations (see Zhou et al. 2013 and references within (pdf here)

Quote

In the evening on the Chinese lunar calendar day of 11
Dec. 774, i.e., 17 Jan. AD 775, in the east and above Moon,
there were more than ten bands of white lights like the
spread silk, penetrating and covering eight grand constellations
named in Chinese, corresponding to the sky composed
of Taurus-Auriga, m Gemini, q Cancer, l Orion,
V Orion, e Taurus, d Hydra and a Leo, and the lights
were ceased gradually after middle night, as recorded in
the Old Tang Book - a Chinese Chronicle [7].

Jonny

The path to good scholarship is paved with imagined patterns. - David M Raup



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2016 05:04AM by Hermione.