Possibility of Meteor Path Determination by Records in Ancient Chinese Local Gazetteers

摘要

It is well known that many meteor observations ware described ancient Chinese historical records. Especially in Ch'ing dynasty period (1644-1912), many of them in local gazetteers ware recorded with event time, path direction and observation location. By precise searching these factors, possibility of meteor path determination ware examined. Four probable examples in 1891, 1873, 1672 and 1661 are shown and discussed their characteristics. Only projected paths on the ground ware determined by lack of height information in records.