Page "Nabonassar" Paragraph 3

According to Claudius Ptolemy in his work Almagest, this gave rise to an era beginning noon on February 26, 747 BC when the Anno Nabonassari began, but prior to the hellenistic period there is no trace of this era.

The Babylonian Chronicle covering the years 747 to 668 BC, the best preserved exemplar of this genre, was possibly collated from astronomical diaries, although the earliest exemplar of these dates to 652 BC.

The lists of celestial phenomena started with the lunar eclipse of 747 – 746 BC ( February 6, 746 BC according to Britton and others ), a spectacular conjunction of the moon and the planets which may have inspired the commencement of recording of accurate astronomical observations.