Purpose of astronomical observations in the past
One of the main functions of astronomy was for the purpose of timekeeping. The Chinese used a lunisolar calendar, but as the cycles of the Sun and

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The divisions of the sky began with the Northern Dipper and the 28 mansions.
In 1977, a lacquer box was excavated from the tomb of Yi, the marquis of Zeng, in Suixian,

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Star catalogues
In the fourth century BCE, the two Chinese astronomers responsible for the earliest information going into the star catalogues were Shi Shen

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Chinese astronomers recorded 1,600 observations of solar and lunar eclipses from 750 BCE. The ancient Chinese astronomer

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Indian astronomy
Buddhism first reached China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and translation of Indian works on astronomy came to China by the

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The Ming Dynasty in China lasted from 1368 until 1644 and experienced a decrease in astronomical expansion. The occupation of astronomer during these times relied less on discovery and more on the use of astronomy. Astronomers worked in the two

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Armillary sphere (渾儀)
The earliest development of the armillary sphere in China goes back to the 1st century BCE, as they were equipped with a primitive single-ring armillary instrument. This would have allowed them to measure the north polar distance (

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