Its appearance in 1066 sent religious and non-religious people running into churches. Halley's Comet was considered a ......... of doom. potentate potential portent privation
The comet was blamed for earthquakes, plagues, and the births of two headed farm animals in Switzerland. A mysterious red rain was interpreted to be an ......... warning of the end of the world. ominous opulent overt ouster
English astronomer, Edmond Halley for whom the comet was named, proved that the comet would be a ......... event approximately every 75 years. refractory recurrent resurgent regalia
Halley worked backwards in determining ......... historical dates. A passage in the Book of Joshua describing the "sun standing still in the sky" in reference to sighting a comet, meant Israelites were living in the land of Canaan in 1404 BC and had observed the event. spontaneous stopgap specific sporadic
Since many events in history are not well documented, it is next to impossible to determine when they actually occurred. However, astronomy is more exact: solar eclipses can now be backdated using ......... accounts. contemporary contemplate contemplates configure
For example, historians can put dates to ancient events simply by using the ......... of the earth and moon orbits. A five-year war between the Lydians and the Medes was known to have stopped when a total eclipse occurred on May 28, 585 BC. congruous congregate calculations countermand
Stardating was another process used to determine construction dates of the Great Pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Cheops is ......... to within a tenth of a degree, built to face true north. aligned axiom authoritarian audacious
True north was determined by observing the stars, Mizar and Kochab, follow the same axis of rotation as the earth. A plumb line cut between them would continue the ......... to determine true north. azimuth astonishment authenticate attribute
One ......... in this calculation is that stars change position relative to the earth. The true north alignment in 2467 BC changed. Polaris is the star now aligned with true north. figment fortuitous formaldehyde fallacy
Nevertheless, astronomers concur that pyramids built after Cheops are all slightly misaligned by a small degree toward the west. When this ......... was measured, the construction date of the Great Pyramid was determined to be 2478 BC. deviation determination disputation dissertation
