This week in history - long ago in the year 2137 BC - the earliest known solar eclipse recorded by humans took place. Of course, solar eclipses had been a mainstay on planet Earth for b-zillions of years before that; this one was the first recorded.

But it wasn't recorded by ancient Europeans, and many of us might first guess. This event is found in a book called Classic of History, a Chinese book.

Not many of us are aware of the fact that other people groups outside of the west were heavily engaged in astronomy for eons. The Chinese were one of those people.

One of the main purposes for their observations - the same purpose for a lot of people - was to keep time, of course. Knowing when to plant and reap, and the ability to plan important annual events are important human activities. And the Chinese, like many people, studied the stars not just for telling time but for astrological purposes, for divining what might be coming up in the near future for whomever was in power at the time.

The Chinese contributed a lot to astronomy over the millennia. Centuries before Christ, Chinese astronomers were working out how to predict solar and lunar eclipses. And for thousands of years the Chinese have been cataloging the skies with elaborate star charts and collections of constellations.

While Europe was wallowing about in astronomy before and during the Middle Ages, contributing next to nothing, the Chinese were going strong. As just one example, it was they who saw and recorded a great heavenly event in the year 1054, somehow missed in Europe.

A Chinese document records this: "In the 1st year of the period Chih-ho, the 5th moon, the day chi-ch'ou, a guest star appeared... After more than a year it gradually became invisible..."

It turns out this "guest star" was nothing less than a supernova, the death of a giant star. The faint remnants of the explosion can still be seen in a backyard telescope as the Crab Nebula in Taurus.

One of the oldest observatories in the world was built in Beijing in the 15th century as Europe was beginning to awake from slumber. Built before the invention of the telescope, it sported the latest in observational equipment, including an armillary, a quadrant, and a theodolite.

The contributions of the Chinese are many and could never be satisfactorily covered here. Were the Chinese perfect in their predictions and theories and overall views of the cosmos? Of course not. Like the Arabs, and later, the Europeans, there was plenty of contribution, but also a fair share of miscalculation and misinterpretation. But they were on the A-list of astronomical contributors for literally millennia.