Astronomers Say Starry Night Matches a July 1889 Sky

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA team of astronomers says it has found the night that van Gogh painted in Starry Night, and they say it's July twenty-second, eighteen eighty-nine, before dawn.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA specific date for a painting that has been dated to June for years. I'd call that a timeline refinement, Hank.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe study is in Scientific Reports.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt says the tilted star pattern in the painting sits at thirty-three point one three degrees, inside the range of thirty-two point six to thirty-five point one for the real sky that morning.

5. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorAnd they say the bright cluster is the Hyades, in Taurus. Not Aries, which earlier studies suggested. So they corrected the record politely.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe June date came from a letter van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. So the sky is now arguing with the letter.

7. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorExperts also say the mid-June moon is the wrong shape for the slender crescent in the painting.

8. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorLetters are lovely, but a moon is a moon.

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorBut the Van Gogh Museum says star positions can't be a reliable basis for dating the work.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe museum also points out that van Gogh had a serious breakdown around the same time, around July twenty-second, which left him unable to paint for about a month.

11. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo the museum has issued what we call a respectful, fully informed no.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe lead author says he's confident and will bet on the date. The painter can't settle it. He was out for about a month.