What is an Armillary Sphere?

Armillary sphere, an ancient astronomical observation instrument in ancient China, is an ancient astronomical astronomical instrument made of ring gauges and sights of the corresponding circles of the celestial coordinate system. The manufacture of armillary sphere began in Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty, an astronomer Li Chunfeng designed a relatively sophisticated and perfect armillary eclipse. Astronomer Guo Shoujing of Yuan Dynasty simplified it and created Jianyi. The earliest existing armillary sphere in China was manufactured in the Ming Dynasty and displayed at the Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory.

[hún yí]

Armillary sphere is based on the theory of Armillary Sphere. In ancient times, the word "hundred" contained the meaning of a sphere. The ancients believed that the sky is round and shaped like an eggshell. The stars that appear in the sky are projectiles embedded in the eggshell, and the earth is the egg yolk. People measure on this egg yolk

The invention of the Chinese armillary sphere was between the fourth century BC and the first century BC (that is, the middle of the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties).

History records that the manufacture of armillary sphere began in Han Dynasty. He was from Shu County, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was called to Chang'an, a capital of Beijing, to participate in the formulation of "

"Mengxi Bi Tan · Polar Star Survey": Astronomers have armillary spheres, astronomical instruments, and are located in Chongtai, waiting for those who look like elephants, then ancient machine scales are also. The imaginary image, like a vessel of the sky, is stimulated by water, or converted by mercury, and placed in a secret room, consistent with the sky, Zhang Heng, Lu Jishui, and those who are placed in the Wucheng Hall in the Kaiyuan, are also this instrument. In Huang Youzhong, the Ministry of Rites tried "Equipment of Astronomical Equipment for Equilibrium and Astronomy", and everyone used a variety of things. Before Han Dynasty, they all lived in the sky with Beichen, so they were called "polar stars". Since the ancestral test of the ancestors from the ancestral balance, since the ancestors of the ancestors have tested the extreme immobility, it was more than once at the end of the star. In Xining, Yu Shouyun, the chief calendar officer, took a mixed examination of the ephemeris, and sought extreme stars by means of balance. In the spy tube early in the night, come back from time to time to know that the peep tube is small and cannot allow the polar stars to swim, but it is a little bit peeping. In March, Ji Xing Fang swims inside the spy tube. It is not common to hide, and then knows that the sky is not moving. Far Ji Xing is still more than three degrees. Each pole star enters the speculum, don't draw a picture. The picture shows a pair of compasses. With the first night, middle night, and second night of each picture, for more than two hundred pictures, the polar stars often follow the compass, and the night is not bad. Yu Yu described it in detail in "Xining Calendar".