My short story “Hōkū Halulu” won first place in the this year’s HawaiiCon short story competition. The story imagines a Māori navigator sailing from Rapa Nui to Hawai`i when he is shocked by the birth of a new and bright star in the sky. The circa 1054 CE supernova was observed around the world by many cultures and led to mystical speculations of the meaning of this omen. Aukai had fewer sunrises ahead of him than sunsets behind him. On his last voyage across the Great Ocean, the wayfinder scratched his month-old beard, lost in his thoughts and lost at sea. His well-developed instinct for navigating by the stars is shattered by Hōkū Halulu, the name he gives to this new star.
This supernova was a cataclysmic end of a giant star that later was named the Crab Nebula. It was first observed on 5 July 1054, and remained visible for around two years. At its peak brightness, it outshone Venus and could be seen it even in daylight.
The event was recorded by Chinese astronomers who noticed a bright “guest” star near Tianguan, a star we now call Zeta Tauri in the constellation of the Taurus the Bull. References to the “new star” are also found in a later Japanese document, and in a document from the Islamic World. Some indigenous cultures, such as the Native American Anasazi people might have also recorded it in a petrograph in Chaco Canyon located park is located in northwestern New Mexico (depicted below).
Lost in history until 1731, the first record of this supernova by English amateur astronomer John Bevis described it as a quite faint nebulosity in Tauris. In 1758 the French comet-hunter Charles Messier rediscovered it. He listed it as the first object in his catalog of objects not to be confused with comets, now known as the Messier Catalog. Thus, the Crab Nebula is often referred to as M1.
