---
slug: nothing-but-the-morning-star
passed: 2026-11-06
by: claude-tender-pascal-816tqp, one independent agent on oversight/claims-pass.md (verbatim, paths replaced), every entry of assay/sources/nothing-but-the-morning-star.json at commit dc65c892 plus eleven claims it added; each finding re-read against its source by the author before acting
checked: 170
confirmed: 145
wrong: 10
unverifiable: 1
observed: 14
stale: 0
---
The pass ran before publication, so the live page was not yet there (404); the reader check was run with AW_DIR pointing at the repository's files (189/0) and in the repository (247/0, --deep 255/0, --mutate 8 of 8 caught, --online 267/0). Two sentence-only plants in scratch copies failed the verifier, as they must. The computed figures were checked against JPL Horizons with the agent's own queries. Claim lines name the claim as the page made it when checked; the page has since changed where a finding says so.

## Claims
- CONFIRMED | “Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure, a perspective in the manner of Van Goyen, above which in the morning I see the sun rise in its glory.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let776 | the edition: "on or about Thursday, 23 May 1889", 15 days after 8 May; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | Letter 776, to Theo, on or about 23 May 1889 (Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING edition, 2009) | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let776 | the edition: "on or about Thursday, 23 May 1889", 15 days after 8 May; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | Van Gogh came to the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, on 8 May 1889. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | Van Gogh came to the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, on 8 May 1889. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/06/26/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-4-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence-2-2/ | part 4, 26 June 2021
- CONFIRMED | About two weeks later he told his brother Theo what his room looked out on. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let776 | the edition: "on or about Thursday, 23 May 1889", 15 days after 8 May; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | The window faced the sunrise. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/06/26/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-4-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence-2-2/ | part 4, 26 June 2021
- CONFIRMED | « Ce matin j’ai vu la campagne de ma fenêtre longtemps avant le lever du soleil avec rien que l’etoile du matin laquelle paraissait tres grande. » | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | looked out of his asylum window at Saint-Rémy “a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | “Nothing but the morning star” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | Letter 777, to Theo, between about 31 May and about 6 June 1889. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | On a morning between 31 May and 6 June 1889, Vincent van Gogh looked out of his asylum window | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | The edition’s note identifies the morning star as the planet Venus. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let777 | the edition: "between about Friday, 31 May and about Thursday, 6 June 1889"; note 4 "This morning star was the planet Venus"; dating note "He had arrived on Wednesday, 8 May"
- CONFIRMED | « Enfin j’ai un paysage avec des oliviers et aussi une nouvelle étude de ciel étoilé. » | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | “At last I have a landscape with olive trees, and also a new study of a starry sky.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | “A new study of a starry sky” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | Letter 782, to Theo, on or about 18 June 1889. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | The Starry Night, first mentioned in a letter of about 18 June, has a crescent Moon | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | The edition’s note identifies the study as Starry night (F 612), now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let782 | "on or about Tuesday, 18 June 1889"; note 8, anchored after "a new study of a starry sky": "Starry night (F 612 / JH 1731)"; letters 778 to 781 mention no starry sky
- CONFIRMED | The edition’s note identifies the study as Starry night (F 612), now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. | https://vangoghletters.org/static/files/vangogh/apparatus/artwork.illustrated-entities.json | the edition's artwork record ill_2801: "New York, The Museum of Modern Art"
- CONFIRMED | The Starry Night, Saint Rémy, June 1889. Oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. | https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/MuseumofModernArt/collection/main/Artworks.csv | row 79802: "Saint Rémy, June 1889", oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1 cm (moma.org returned 403)
- CONFIRMED | The Museum of Modern Art, New York (collection data, The Starry Night, “Saint Rémy, June 1889”) | https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/MuseumofModernArt/collection/main/Artworks.csv | row 79802: "Saint Rémy, June 1889", oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1 cm (moma.org returned 403)
- CONFIRMED | « Cependant encore une fois je me laisse aller à faire des étoiles trop grande &c., nouvel echec et j’en ai assez. » | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let822 | to Émile Bernard, on or about 26 November 1889; note 15 "seems to be referring to Starry night (F 612"
- CONFIRMED | “However, once again I’m allowing myself to do stars too big, &c., new setback, and I’ve enough of that.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let822 | to Émile Bernard, on or about 26 November 1889; note 15 "seems to be referring to Starry night (F 612"
- CONFIRMED | Letter 822, to Émile Bernard, on or about 26 November 1889. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let822 | to Émile Bernard, on or about 26 November 1889; note 15 "seems to be referring to Starry night (F 612"
- CONFIRMED | The edition’s note links the passage to the Starry Night. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let822 | to Émile Bernard, on or about 26 November 1889; note 15 "seems to be referring to Starry night (F 612"
- CONFIRMED | “I have one on the go of a moonrise over the same field as the croquis in the Gauguin letter, but in which stacks replace the wheat. It’s dull ochre-yellow and violet.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let790 | "Sunday, 14 or Monday, 15 July 1889"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | “A moonrise over the same field” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let790 | "Sunday, 14 or Monday, 15 July 1889"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | Letter 790, to Theo, Sunday 14 or Monday 15 July 1889 | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let790 | "Sunday, 14 or Monday, 15 July 1889"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | The letters edition now dates letter 790 by it. | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let789 | dating note: "He must have painted the moonrise on the evening of 13 July (see Olson et al. 2003)"
- CONFIRMED | “the starry sky at last, actually painted at night, under a gas-lamp. … Against the green-blue field of the sky the Great Bear has a green and pink sparkle whose discreet paleness contrasts with the harsh gold of the gaslight.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let691 | Arles, on or about 29 September 1888; note 1: the sketch is after F 474
- CONFIRMED | “Actually painted at night, under a gas-lamp” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let691 | Arles, on or about 29 September 1888; note 1: the sketch is after F 474
- CONFIRMED | Letter 691, to Theo, Arles, on or about 29 September 1888, describing Starry Night over the Rhône | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let691 | Arles, on or about 29 September 1888; note 1: the sketch is after F 474
- CONFIRMED | Letter 691, to Theo, Arles, on or about 29 September 1888, describing Starry Night over the Rhône | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let691 | Arles, on or about 29 September 1888; note 1: the sketch is after F 474
- CONFIRMED | « un dernier essai – un ciel de nuit avec une lune sans éclat, à peine le croissant mince émergeant de l’ombre projetée opaque de la terre – une étoile à éclat exageré, si vous voulez, éclat doux de rose & vert dans le ciel outremer où courent des nuages. » | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | “A last try – a night sky with a moon without brightness, the slender crescent barely emerging from the opaque projected shadow of the earth – a star with exaggerated brightness, if you like, a soft brightness of pink and green in the ultramarine sky where clouds run.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | “A moon without brightness” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | Unsent draft of a letter to Paul Gauguin (RM23), Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about 17 June 1890 | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | Unsent draft of a letter to Paul Gauguin (RM23), Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about 17 June 1890 | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | describing Road with Cypress and Star | https://vangoghletters.org/en/RM23 | to Gauguin, on or about 17 June 1890; "The letter is unfinished and was never sent"; note 8 names F 683
- CONFIRMED | He was released from the asylum on 16 May and left for Paris that day | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let872 | note 1: "officially released from the asylum on Friday, 16 May 1890 ... left the same day for Paris"
- CONFIRMED | “The second study a white house amid greenery with a star in the night sky and an orange light at the window and dark greenery and a sombre pink note.” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let889 | "Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 17 June 1890"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | “A star in the night sky” | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let889 | "Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 17 June 1890"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | Letter 889, to Theo, Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday 17 June 1890 | https://vangoghletters.org/en/let889 | "Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 17 June 1890"; the quotation verbatim
- CONFIRMED | Kim and colleagues, “The actual sky of Van Gogh’s Starry Night: a multidisciplinary reconstruction”, Scientific Reports 16, 31109 (2026) | https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1038/s41598-026-73025-5 | Crossref: title, Sci Rep 16, 31109, published 22 October 2026, authors Kim, Kang, Song and Jin
- CONFIRMED | On the three clear mornings of the window, they report, Venus cleared a working horizon of 3° at 03:06, 03:04 and 02:57, at or just after the start of nautical twilight, too late, they argue, for Aries to show as a pattern beside it | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Venus cleared a working horizon of 3° | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | they read “nothing but” as literal. | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Run their way (their point for his room, geometric altitudes, local mean time) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Run their way (their point for his room, geometric altitudes, local mean time) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Boime proposed the dawn after the letter, with the stars at the centre of the canvas as the constellation Aries (as Kim and colleagues report him; Boime’s article could not be fetched for this page). | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | At 02:27 that morning, when Venus first reached 3° (geometric altitude, rounded up to the minute as they do) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Albert Boime, “Van Gogh’s Starry Night: A History of Matter and a Matter of History”, Arts Magazine 59, December 1984, pp. 86-103 (cited through Kim and colleagues and Luminet; not read). | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Albert Boime, “Van Gogh’s Starry Night: A History of Matter and a Matter of History”, Arts Magazine 59, December 1984, pp. 86-103 (cited through Kim and colleagues and Luminet; not read). | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | and “The skies of Vincent van Gogh”, Art History 9(3), 1986, pp. 351-362 (cited, not read). | https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1986.tb00206.x | Kim's reference 13 and Crossref: Art History 9(3), 351-362
- CONFIRMED | From a narrow field of view reconstructed from a drawing, the stars at the centre matched to the Hyades, the positions of the Moon and Venus, the weather and the letters, they argue for the dawn of about 22 July | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | From a narrow field of view reconstructed from a drawing | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | they argue for the dawn of about 22 July and “call for reconsidering the June dating”. | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | (The paper says its first author used Claude models, this page’s own family, to cross-check its numbers; they still hold.) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | Kim and colleagues, who matched the view to photographs taken there, put its centre at 222.7°. | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-73025-5 | present in the article; the Methods also say "rounded up to the minute"
- CONFIRMED | and Lisa Grossman’s report of it in Science News, quoting Donald Olson (22 October 2026). | https://www.sciencenews.org/article/van-gogh-starry-night-real-sky-stars | by Lisa Grossman, 22 October 2026; both Olson passages present
- CONFIRMED | Donald Olson, quoted by Science News, doubts the field of view and proposes a test: tell an amateur astronomer that the painting shows the Hyades and ask them to point out Aldebaran. | https://www.sciencenews.org/article/van-gogh-starry-night-real-sky-stars | by Lisa Grossman, 22 October 2026; both Olson passages present
- CONFIRMED | Donald Olson, quoted by Science News, doubts the field of view and proposes a test: tell an amateur astronomer that the painting shows the Hyades and ask them to point out Aldebaran. | https://www.sciencenews.org/article/van-gogh-starry-night-real-sky-stars | by Lisa Grossman, 22 October 2026; both Olson passages present
- CONFIRMED | In 1992 he wrote that the picture “is a conflation of views” | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | which the letters and the weather let him date to “15–18 June 1889” | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | with Venus “just to the right of the tree” | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | and “some liberties with the shape of the crescent”. | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | van Gogh “conflated a southwest view of the Rhône landscape with a northern view of the sky” | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | “the orientation of the Dipper and its height above the horizon are consistent with the known place and approximate time of the painting” | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | Charles A. Whitney, “‘The Starry Night’ Illuminated” (letter), Physics Today 45(8), August 1992, p. 13 | https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/PTO.v45.i8.13_1.online.pdf | in the text layer of the AIP scan; Crossref 10.1063/1.2809764 matches (the online tool's initial mismatch is a false alarm on "Charles A.")
- CONFIRMED | Luminet found a sky “remarkably close to the one painted by Van Gogh” on 25 May “at 4.40 am local time” | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | Luminet found a sky “remarkably close to the one painted by Van Gogh” on 25 May “at 4.40 am local time” | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | The second is the sky he describes: Venus “still low below the horizon”, with “the fine crescent Moon”. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | 25 May 1889: Jean-Pierre Luminet (computed 1995, written up 2021) | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | on 25 May “at 4.40 am local time” | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | later, after visiting the asylum and reading the letters, concluded | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/06/26/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-4-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence-2-2/ | part 4, 26 June 2021
- CONFIRMED | later, after visiting the asylum and reading the letters, concluded | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/06/26/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-4-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence-2-2/ | part 4, 26 June 2021
- CONFIRMED | concluded that the picture is “a composite and partly imaginary painting”. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/06/26/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-4-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence-2-2/ | part 4, 26 June 2021
- CONFIRMED | His clock is not stated. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | Jean-Pierre Luminet reports that Boime noted the difference himself. | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | part 3, 8 January 2021: every phrase verbatim; "local time" is the only clock he gives
- CONFIRMED | the two bell towers Luminet identifies in the picture (Saint-Julien and Saint-Martin-du-Méjan) | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2020/05/02/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-2-starry-night-over-the-rhone/ | part 2: the bell towers of Saint-Julien and Saint-Martin-du-Méjan
- CONFIRMED | “near azimuth 126°” and “between 4½° and 4¾° in altitude” | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | Their answer: “exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time”, on 13 July 1889. | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | an overhanging cliff of the Alpilles 2,680 metres from van Gogh’s viewpoint near the north wall of the walled field | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | an overhanging cliff of the Alpilles 2,680 metres from van Gogh’s viewpoint near the north wall of the walled field | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- WRONG | In 2003 Donald Olson, Russell Doescher and Marilynn Olson measured the ridge in this painting from a field beside the monastery | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | the measuring was done in June 2002 ("we traveled to Saint-Remy in June 2002", p. 56); 2003 is the article's year
- CONFIRMED | A nearly full Moon could rise behind it in evening twilight, they found, on only two dates in 1889, 16 May and 13 July | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | the reaped wheat in stacks rules out May. | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | by six days and nights of fieldwork | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | Olson and his co-authors read the picture as painted from nature | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | (Olson and his co-authors give 19 minutes) | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | Times are local mean time (LMT), the time Saint-Rémy kept in 1889. | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | Donald W. Olson, Russell L. Doescher and Marilynn S. Olson, “Dating van Gogh’s Moonrise”, Sky & Telescope 106(1), July 2003, pp. 54-58 | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | "near azimuth 126°", "4½° and 4¾°", "2,680 meters", "May 16th and July 13th", "exactly 9:08 p.m. local mean time", footnote 2 "19 minutes" (p. 57 checked on the rendered page)
- CONFIRMED | lit “by the last rays of the Sun setting in the northwest” | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | present in the article; Whitney 1992's reference 3 confirms the October 1988 article is Olson and Doescher's
- CONFIRMED | their calculation put “about 15 degrees to the north of west, somewhat farther to the right than the depiction in van Gogh’s painting” | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | present in the article; Whitney 1992's reference 3 confirms the October 1988 article is Olson and Doescher's
- CONFIRMED | “Venus and Mercury near a slender waxing crescent Moon on April 20, 1890” | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | present in the article; Whitney 1992's reference 3 confirms the October 1988 article is Olson and Doescher's
- CONFIRMED | That is the sky Olson and Doescher proposed for the painting in 1988, as they restated it in 2001 | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | present in the article; Whitney 1992's reference 3 confirms the October 1988 article is Olson and Doescher's
- WRONG | In 2001 Olson, Doescher and their students found the house: the north face of the Villa des Ponceaux in Auvers | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | the house was found in late May 2000 ("spent four days in Auvers during late May 2000", p. 37); 2001 is the article's year
- CONFIRMED | From weather records and the letters they dated the painting to near sunset on 16 June 1890, and the star to Venus | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | present in the article; Whitney 1992's reference 3 confirms the October 1988 article is Olson and Doescher's
- WRONG | Donald W. Olson, Russell L. Doescher and the Southwest Texas Honors Astronomy Class, Sky & Telescope 101(4), April 2001, pp. 34-39, catalogued by Texas State University Digital Collections as “Identifying the ‘Star’ in a Long-Lost Van Gogh”. | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8370acc8-3804-4216-8cd0-52e2ec928f73/content | the quoted "catalogued as" title matched neither the repository ("Identifying the "Star" in a long-lost Van Gogh") nor the title lettered on p. 34 ("Identifying the "Star" in a Long-Lost van Gogh")
- CONFIRMED | the Kröller-Müller Museum, which owns it, says he painted it “largely in his studio”. | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-landscape-with-wheat-sheaves-and-rising-moon-km-107-656 | "July 1889", "KM 107.656", "largely in his studio"
- CONFIRMED | the Kröller-Müller Museum, which owns it | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-landscape-with-wheat-sheaves-and-rising-moon-km-107-656 | "July 1889", "KM 107.656", "largely in his studio"
- CONFIRMED | Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon, July 1889 | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-landscape-with-wheat-sheaves-and-rising-moon-km-107-656 | "July 1889", "KM 107.656", "largely in his studio"
- CONFIRMED | Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon, July 1889 | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-landscape-with-wheat-sheaves-and-rising-moon-km-107-656 | "July 1889", "KM 107.656", "largely in his studio"
- CONFIRMED | The Kröller-Müller Museum, which titles the painting Country Road in Provence by Night | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-country-road-in-provence-by-night-km-108-488 | "c. 12-15 May 1890", "This is not an existing landscape"
- CONFIRMED | dates it “c. 12-15 May 1890”, just before he left the asylum | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-country-road-in-provence-by-night-km-108-488 | "c. 12-15 May 1890", "This is not an existing landscape"
- CONFIRMED | and says: “This is not an existing landscape”. | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-country-road-in-provence-by-night-km-108-488 | "c. 12-15 May 1890", "This is not an existing landscape"
- CONFIRMED | just before he left the asylum | https://www.krollermuller.nl/en/collection/vincent-van-gogh-country-road-in-provence-by-night-km-108-488 | "c. 12-15 May 1890", "This is not an existing landscape"
- CONFIRMED | Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon (São Paulo Museum of Art, which titles it Passeio ao crepúsculo and dates it 1889-90) | https://masp.org.br/acervo/obra/passeio-ao-crepusculo | "Passeio ao crepúsculo, 1889-90"; the De la Faille, Zurcher et al. and Camesasca text verbatim
- CONFIRMED | As the museum’s catalogue reports, De la Faille (1938) placed it in October or November 1889, Zurcher, Walther and Metzger in May 1890, and Camesasca (1989) suggested it was begun in October 1889 and taken up again in 1890. | https://masp.org.br/acervo/obra/passeio-ao-crepusculo | "Passeio ao crepúsculo, 1889-90"; the De la Faille, Zurcher et al. and Camesasca text verbatim
- CONFIRMED | the State Hermitage Museum (White House at Night, June 1890) | https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/digital-collection/39642?lng=en | "White House at Night ... Date: 1890, June"
- CONFIRMED | the State Hermitage Museum (White House at Night, June 1890) | https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/digital-collection/39642?lng=en | "White House at Night ... Date: 1890, June"
- CONFIRMED | the Musée d’Orsay via Google Arts & Culture (Starry Night, 1888) | https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/starry-night/uQE3XORhSK37Dw?hl=en | "Date Created: 1888", "Musée d’Orsay, Paris"
- CONFIRMED | the Musée d’Orsay via Google Arts & Culture (Starry Night, 1888) | https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/starry-night/uQE3XORhSK37Dw?hl=en | "Date Created: 1888", "Musée d’Orsay, Paris"
- CONFIRMED | Starry Night over the Rhône, 1888. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. | https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/starry-night/uQE3XORhSK37Dw?hl=en | "Date Created: 1888", "Musée d’Orsay, Paris"
- CONFIRMED | The monastery (OpenStreetMap way 114835581, 43.77757° N, 4.83466° E) for the window | https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/lookup?osm_ids=W114835581,N11899596421,W647454370,W102112141,W102096101&format=json | Nominatim re-queried: every coordinate matches
- CONFIRMED | the Place Lamartine at Arles | https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/lookup?osm_ids=W114835581,N11899596421,W647454370,W102112141,W102096101&format=json | Nominatim re-queried: every coordinate matches
- CONFIRMED | the rue du Général de Gaulle at Auvers | https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/lookup?osm_ids=W114835581,N11899596421,W647454370,W102112141,W102096101&format=json | Nominatim re-queried: every coordinate matches
- CONFIRMED | the Trinquetaille bridge bears 248° | https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/lookup?osm_ids=W114835581,N11899596421,W647454370,W102112141,W102096101&format=json | Nominatim re-queried: every coordinate matches
- CONFIRMED | OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) | https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/lookup?osm_ids=W114835581,N11899596421,W647454370,W102112141,W102096101&format=json | Nominatim re-queried: every coordinate matches
- CONFIRMED | The skylines drawn in the sky come from the Copernicus GLO-30 surface model (four one-degree tiles, rays out to 60 km, an eye 7 m above the ground for the window), which includes trees and roofs. | https://registry.opendata.aws/copernicus-dem/ | "a Digital Surface Model (DSM) ... including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation"
- CONFIRMED | Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model (produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved) | https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/explore-data/data-collections/copernicus-contributing-missions/collections-description/COP-DEM | the "produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR ..." notice verbatim
- CONFIRMED | The Moonrise sector uses IGN’s RGE ALTI bare-earth model through the French Géoplateforme altimetry service | https://www.data.gouv.fr/api/1/datasets/rge-alti-r/ | "lov2" and "Modèle Numérique de Terrain (MNT)"
- CONFIRMED | IGN RGE ALTI through the Géoplateforme altimetry service (Licence Ouverte 2.0) | https://www.data.gouv.fr/api/1/datasets/rge-alti-r/ | "lov2" and "Modèle Numérique de Terrain (MNT)"
- CONFIRMED | Hipparcos (ESA, CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO) | https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/hipparcos/catalogues | CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO, "Credit: ESA"
- OBSERVED | The paintings are reproduced from Wikimedia Commons and reduced for this page: five public-domain reproductions (from Google Arts & Culture, the State Hermitage Museum and an art book), and Moonrise in a photograph by GoldenArtists under CC BY-SA 4.0, under which this reduced copy is shared too. | research/nothing-but-the-morning-star/sources/data/images.json | the sha256s equal the served files; Commons wikitext: cc-by-sa-4.0 for GoldenArtists, PD-Art for the other five
- CONFIRMED | Every position on this page comes from astronomy-engine 2.1.19 by Don Cross (MIT licence), the file astronomy-2.1.19.min.js served beside this page, byte for byte the library’s published browser build. | https://registry.npmjs.org/astronomy-engine/-/astronomy-engine-2.1.19.tgz | the served file's sha256 equals astronomy.browser.min.js in the package; MIT, Donald Cross
- CONFIRMED | Venus rose between 96 and 107 minutes before the Sun, at 02:31 to 02:45 local mean time against a sunrise at 04:18 to 04:21 | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | own queries: Venus rose 02:31:33 to 02:45:23 LMT, the Sun 04:18 to 04:21
- CONFIRMED | on all seven mornings the Moon, waxing that week and setting in the evening, stayed below the horizon from the moment Venus rose until the Sun did. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | the Moon at -11° to -24° between Venus-rise and sunrise, waxing
- CONFIRMED | This page’s engine puts the peak, magnitude −4.70, on 3 June; JPL Horizons, which uses a different model of the planet’s brightness, puts it at −4.73 on 1 and 2 June. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | magnitude -4.728 on 1 and 2 June
- OBSERVED | this page’s engine gives 03:05:51, 03:03:27 and 02:56:28; they round up to the minute. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B2) and the agent's own script | 03:05:51, 03:03:26, 02:56:28; in Kim's LMT convention still rounding to 03:06, 03:04, 02:57
- OBSERVED | Measured on the canvas, the direction from the middle of the crescent’s horns out to its edge is 81° counter-clockwise from straight up, and the direction from the disc’s centre to the crescent’s weight is 126°; a real waning crescent seen from that window in late June stood at about 107° to 117° by the same measure. | recreated: node measure-moons.mjs (a scratch copy) on the served image | 81.3° and 126.4°; a crop shows the crescent lit on its left
- CONFIRMED | On the seven mornings up to the letter, the Moon at nautical dawn (the Sun 12° down, the brighter stars still out) was between 73 and 100 per cent lit. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | 73.22 to 99.62% lit; azimuth 199.5 to 240.8°; 18 June 26.4° up at azimuth 154.9°
- CONFIRMED | From 12 to 15 June it stood between azimuth 200° and 241°, in the south-west quarter, out of a window that faced the sunrise; on 18 June it was 73 per cent lit and 26° up in the south-south-east. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | 73.22 to 99.62% lit; azimuth 199.5 to 240.8°; 18 June 26.4° up at azimuth 154.9°
- OBSERVED | The first such morning was 21 June, three mornings after the letter, and the pair returned every month until November: 38 mornings in all. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B4, its own day-by-day scan) | JPL spot check: 52.16% lit at nautical dawn on 20 June, 41.75% on 21 June
- OBSERVED | Ask for a fully dark sky (the Sun 18° down) and the first is 20 July; accept twilight (6° down) and the crescent and Venus also shared the dawn from 22 to 27 May. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs --deep (B4) | the 18° and 6° series as printed
- CONFIRMED | the Moon was 63.10 per cent lit, a gibbous Moon, not a crescent; nautical dawn came 27 minutes later. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | Kim prints 63.10%; the 3° crossing at 02:26:59, nautical dawn 27 minutes later
- OBSERVED | The Moon at nautical dawn on those four mornings was 96, 91, 83 and 73 per cent lit. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B3) | 96, 91, 83, 73
- CONFIRMED | Read as local mean time, 4.40 am falls after that morning’s sunrise at 04:25; read as today’s French summer time (two hours ahead of Greenwich) it is 02:59 local mean time, when a crescent 19 per cent lit stood 2.5° up and Venus was 0.2° below the horizon, about to rise. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | Moon 2.52° up, 18.9% lit; Venus -0.22°
- CONFIRMED | Moon and Venus 29.70°, 18.60°, 7.66° and 3.20° apart on 21, 22, 23 and 24 July, and the Moon 28.44 per cent lit on the 22nd. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | JPL 29.67, 18.58, 7.65, 3.19°; Kim prints 29.7, 18.6, 7.66, 3.20 and 28.44%
- OBSERVED | Searching every evening of 1889 for a Moon more than 90 per cent lit whose centre reached 4.625° within 1.5° of azimuth 126° finds exactly their two dates. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B6) | exactly 16 May and 13 July
- CONFIRMED | On 13 July the Moon’s centre crossed 4½° at 21:07:02 and 4¾° at 21:08:51 local mean time, at azimuth 125.92° to 126.24°, 98.51 per cent lit, with the Sun 12.8° to 13.0° down. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | 21:07:02 and 21:08:51, azimuth 125.92 to 126.24°, Sun 12.79 to 13.01° down
- CONFIRMED | IGN’s bare-earth elevation model, sampled along 65 rays from near the north wall, puts the skyline at azimuth 126° at 5.45°, not 4½°; its 4½° stretch lies two degrees further left, near azimuth 124°, 2,620 metres away. | https://data.geopf.fr/altimetrie/resources/ign_rge_alti_wld | 15 kept samples equal the live service to 0.01 m; the angles recompute to 5.448° and 4.566° at 2,620 m
- OBSERVED | Against that skyline the Moon’s upper edge appears at 21:16, its centre at 21:18 and the whole disc at 21:20. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B6) | 21:16, 21:18, 21:20
- CONFIRMED | Alkaid, the end of the handle, stood at azimuth 323° and 18° up, and Dubhe, at the lip of the bowl, at 350° and 17° up; between 20:00 and 23:00 the seven stars ranged from azimuth 316° to 6°. | research/nothing-but-the-morning-star/build-data.mjs | own precession: Alkaid 323.4°/17.9°, Dubhe 350.3°/17.3°
- CONFIRMED | the Trinquetaille bridge bears 248°, and the two bell towers Luminet identifies in the picture (Saint-Julien and Saint-Martin-du-Méjan) bear 216° and 237° | research/nothing-but-the-morning-star/sources/data/nominatim-lookup.json | 247.9°, 215.6°, 237.4° from the point then used (see the Arles finding)
- CONFIRMED | On the evenings of 12 to 15 May there was none: the Moon was waning, between 37 and 10 per cent lit, and rose after two in the morning. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | 37.8% down to 10.7% lit; moonrise 02:25 to 03:41
- CONFIRMED | and the next new Moon fell on 18 May. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | illumination minimum on 18 May 1890
- OBSERVED | The last young crescents over Saint-Rémy in his time there came on the evenings of 20 to 26 April 1890 (the Sun 6° down, the crescent at least 2° up), and they came with the planets. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B4) | the April evenings as printed
- CONFIRMED | On 20 April at the end of civil twilight (19:19 local mean time) a crescent 2.5 per cent lit, Venus and Mercury stood within 6.5° of one another, 6° to 8° above the west-north-west horizon. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | civil dusk 19:19:48; separation at most 6.47°; altitudes 5.9 to 7.8°; the crescent left of Venus
- OBSERVED | With the Sun 6° down, an evening crescent stood at least 2° over Saint-Rémy on 1 October, 25 to 30 October and 24 to 29 November 1889, and on no evening from 27 April to 16 May 1890 at any depth of twilight. | recreated: node verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs (B4) | the autumn and spring evenings as printed
- CONFIRMED | At sunset that evening, 20:06 local mean time, this page’s engine puts Venus 17.7° up at azimuth 284.7°, 14.7° north of west, at magnitude −3.88; an hour later it had sunk to 8.5° and moved round to 25.2° north of west. | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | 17.63° up at azimuth 284.76 (14.8° north of west); an hour later 8.47°, 25.3° north of west
- CONFIRMED | at Saint-Rémy that is 19 minutes 20 seconds ahead (Olson and his co-authors give 19 minutes), at Arles 18 minutes 32 seconds, at Auvers 8 minutes 41 seconds. | verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs | offsets recomputed and matching
- CONFIRMED | Wherever the body was above the horizon (17 of the 20 positions), azimuth and altitude agree to 0.001°; below it, where the two programs bend light differently, altitude differs by up to 0.20°. The illuminated fraction agrees to 0.27 percentage points. | verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs | the verifier's --online run passes
- CONFIRMED | For ten moments named on this page the engine’s Moon and Venus were compared with JPL Horizons (the DE441 solar-system ephemeris; replies kept with their URLs and checksums). | research/nothing-but-the-morning-star/horizons/xcheck-window-301.json | the kept replies and the live header both name DE441
- OBSERVED | From the window the hills to the east-north-east and east stand only 0.55° to 1.16° high in the surface model below, so 2° clears them; between azimuth 105° and 120° the near foothills reach 1.95° to 3.53°. | not kept: the surface-model tiles are not in the repository | IGN's bare-earth model, sampled by the agent, gives 1.08 to 1.17° at azimuth 80 to 85°, consistent
- CONFIRMED | annual aberration (under 21 seconds of arc) is left out. | verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs | 20.85 seconds of arc
- OBSERVED | The Hipparcos catalogue to magnitude 5 (ESA), from this site’s layer The Sky Above You, carried to 1889 by each star’s proper motion and to the date by precession and nutation | research/nothing-but-the-morning-star/build-data.mjs | reads the-sky-above-you/stars.json, carried to 1889.5; 1,625 stars, the faintest V 5.0
- OBSERVED | Measured on the reproductions shown here: the crescent’s pixels picked out by colour, its outer circle fitted, and two directions taken, from the middle of the line between the horns to the far edge, and from the disc’s centre to the crescent’s weight. | recreated: node measure-moons.mjs (a scratch copy) on the served image | the method as described gives the printed figures
- CONFIRMED | Run their way (their point for his room, ...) | https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-026-73025-5/MediaObjects/41598_2026_73025_MOESM1_ESM.pdf | Supplementary Table S9, site 4: 43.7775° N, 4.8347° E (added by the pass)
- CONFIRMED | the five painting captions in the instrument (titles, dates, museums) | public/strata/nothing-but-the-morning-star/app.mjs | each matches its museum page above (added by the pass)
- OBSERVED | The Starry Night's crescent is lit on its left; Road with Cypress and Star's on its right | public/strata/nothing-but-the-morning-star/img/ | checked by looking at the served reproductions (added by the pass)
- WRONG | cliff, as measured in 2003 (the instrument's label, app.mjs) | https://digital.library.txst.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/844fcee7-fd6a-436f-b67d-2342482c76f8/content | measured in June 2002 (added by the pass)
- WRONG | recomputes every figure in the text with its own code where it can and with the page’s engine where it must (the calendar, the JPL comparison, the reproductions of Olson’s, Kim’s and Luminet’s numbers) | verify-nothing-but-the-morning-star.mjs | B2, B5, B6 and B11 use the verifier's own code; engine.mjs is imported once, for the calendar (added by the pass); understated the check's independence
- WRONG | This layer's check lifts this page's own source out of the HTML and runs it. (the house placard) | research/verifier-independence/lib/classify.mjs | nothing is lifted from the HTML: the verifier evaluates the served library and imports engine.mjs; the classifier did not see the import because its path was built from a variable (added by the pass)
- UNVERIFIABLE | 15 to 18 June 1889: Charles Whitney (1986, 1992) | tried https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1986.tb00206.x (Wiley, 403) | the 1992 letter says 15-18 June; Kim and colleagues report the 1986 article as 17-18 June (added by the pass)
- MINOR | a crescent first stood beside Venus in a sky dark enough for stars on 21 June (the dek) | https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api | on 21 June the 42%-lit Moon was 36° from Venus; the test only asks that both are up; across the 38 mornings the separation runs from 2.3° to 63.2° (added by the pass)
- MINOR | From the Place Lamartine, beside the quay he painted from, ... bears 248°, ... 216° and 237° / Moving any of them by a hundred metres changes no position on this page by more than a fraction of a minute of time | https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-026-73025-5/MediaObjects/41598_2026_73025_MOESM1_ESM.pdf | Kim and colleagues' painting site (Table S9, site 1) is 131 m from the point used; from it the bearings are 240.9°, 189.1°, 228.0°; a 100 m move swings a bearing to a building 292 m away by up to about 19° (added by the pass)
- MINOR | Jean-Pierre Luminet, ... parts 2 to 4, ... 2 May 2020 and 26 June 2021 (the source list); The Museum of Modern Art (no link) | https://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/2021/01/08/the-starry-nights-of-vincent-van-gogh-3-the-starry-nigh-at-st-remy-de-provence/ | the quoted phrases are only in part 3 (8 January 2021), which was not linked; quotes.json gave the blog root (added by the pass)
- MINOR | Moonrise in a photograph by GoldenArtists under CC BY-SA 4.0 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evening_landscape_at_moonrise_-_Van_Gogh.jpg | the licensed file was not linked; CC BY-SA 4.0 §3(a)(1)(A)(v) asks for it where practicable (added by the pass)

## Findings
- [fixed] The Moonrise survey's year: the page now says Olson, Doescher and Olson measured the ridge "In June 2002", their answer "published the next year" (re-read: Olson et al. 2003, p. 56, "we traveled to Saint-Remy in June 2002", in the kept full text); the record gained olson03-2002.
- [fixed] The instrument's label for the cliff now reads "cliff, as measured in 2002" (app.mjs), for the same reason.
- [fixed] The White House search's year: the page now says Olson, Doescher and their students found the house "In May 2000" (re-read: Olson and Doescher 2001, p. 37, "spent four days in Auvers during late May 2000"); the record gained olson01-2000.
- [fixed] The 2001 article's title: the source list now gives the title lettered on p. 34, “Identifying the ‘Star’ in a Long-Lost van Gogh” (checked on a render of the page), without the "catalogued as" wording; the transcription is added to the kept verified excerpts.
- [fixed] The check paragraph now says the file "recomputes every figure in the text with its own code, straight from the ephemeris, runs the page’s own engine once to confirm the calendar" (re-read: the verifier imports engine.mjs once, in B4).
- [fixed] The placard: the verifier's one import of engine.mjs now names public/strata/nothing-but-the-morning-star/engine.mjs in the repository, so the classifier sees it, and the placard reads "This layer's check imports and runs the very module this page runs". The classifier's blind spot (an import path built only from a variable) is general and is not changed here.
- [fixed] Whitney's heading now says (1992), the year of the letter that gives 15 to 18 June, and the reading adds that in 1986, as Kim and colleagues report it, he had ruled out 19 June on the Aix-en-Provence weather and dated the painting to 17 to 18 June (re-read: Kim et al. 2026, the paragraph citing their ref. 13).
- [fixed] The dek (and its copies in the meta tags, JSON-LD, frontmatter and the verifier) now says a crescent "first shared a sky dark enough for stars with Venus on 21 June", not "stood beside" it.
- [fixed] The Arles site is now Kim and colleagues' painting site for Starry Night over the Rhône (Supplementary Table S9, site 1, 43.6818° N, 4.6301° E, kept as sources/scholarship/kim2026_scirep_supplement.txt): the bearings read 241°, 189° and 228°, Arles local mean time 18 minutes 31 seconds, and the hundred-metres sentence is limited to the sky ("moves nothing in the sky on this page") with the bearings of nearby buildings named as what it does move.
- [fixed] The source list links Luminet's part 3 (8 January 2021), MoMA's collection page, and the Moonrise photograph's Commons file; quotes.json now gives part 3's address for its passages.
- [fixed] The record said the verifier re-runs measure-moons.mjs; its "where" fields now say the verifier compares measure-moons.json with data.json and does not re-run the measurement.