We investigate methods which may have been found appropriate for predicting lunar eclipses in northern Europe, where naked‐eye astronomy has to be adapted to conditions, which are different from those found at lower latitudes and in places with less cloud cover. The ecliptic is lower in the sky, and transient phenomena cannot reliably be observed under these astronomical viewing conditions. We consider those techniques, which only require the use of objects made of wood, stone and soil, which use no written records, and which require no understanding of celestial mechanics. We show that it should have been possible to answer the question ‘Is there going to be a lunar eclipse, either tonight or tomorrow night?‘ with surprising accuracy. We include an analysis of the nature of some of the artefacts, which may have been helpful in doing so.

我们研究了可能适合预测北欧月食的方法，在那里，肉眼天文学必须适应与低纬度和云量较少的地方不同的条件。黄道在天空中较低，在这些天文观测条件下无法可靠地观察到瞬态现象。我们考虑那些只需要使用由木头、石头和泥土制成的物体的技术，这些技术不需要书面记录，也不需要了解天体力学。我们证明应该有可能回答“今晚或明天晚上是否会有月食？”这个问题。以惊人的准确性。我们对一些人工制品的性质进行了分析，这可能有助于这样做。