The 9 Flying Stars - Part 1

Looking at the flying star chart, some may start to wonder how was this 'Flying Star Feng Shui' started? Which are the stars in the universe are these 9 stars?

These 9 stars were first mentioned in ancient records of Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) as 'Northern Dipper Stars' 北斗星. In western astrology, the 'Big Dipper'.

In fact the ancient palace appointed special officers to observe and to monitor the movement of the big dipper to forecast impending big events that could affect the future of the kingdom.

The stars that formed the Big Dipper are the seven brightest stars in the constellation of Ursa Major.

As a result of the Earth's rotation around the Sun, the Big Dippers to rotate slowly counterclockwise at night around the north celestial pole as indicated by the North Star. The alignment of Merak and Dubhe formed a straight line with Polaris, the North Star.

The ancient Chinese Astronomers used the movement of the Big Dipper as well as the sun to refine the annual calendar, seasonal changes, agriculture activities and dates for ritual ceremony.

Through years of comparison the observed changes in the brightness as well as colour of each individual stars with the good and bad events actually took place within the kingdom, the stars were classified into good and bad stars.

To the Chinese ancient astronomers, the 'North Dipper Star' 北斗星 has seven visible stars and 2 so called 'invisible' stars or 'now you see it, now you don't' types of stars. The name and other data about the nine stars are as shown in the following table.

For the two 'invisible' stars, the star No. 8 左辅 is Alcor, a binary star of Mizar and can be clearly seen with a telescope. But star No. 9 右弼, the available literature pointed to two possible locations. It is either located next to Phecda (No. 3) or located next to Alkaid (No. 7), but unable to relate it to any known star.

(To be continued)
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