I read somewhere that 三垣 covers about 35 degrees  (latitude wise), starting from the polar star, which means that 二十八宿 averagely cover about remaining 55 degrees of the northern celestial sphere (and some part of southern sphere). They are very wide! By the way, there is a 宿 called "叁" (san1) in 二十八宿, which of course indicates Orion's Belt (three stars).

Changye -- we were writing at the same time ...what is below was done before I read your last post!!

Changye, you do know that this was not a question asked out of ethnic snobbery but – like marcel’s – out of the  fascination with cultural difference.  It is as if you wondered whether I am bursting into tears for the right reasons during a bunraku performance – or what I am actually hearing when I watch Noh.

You know better than I do how rare or frequent Japanese experts on Western music are – but when you bump into one they are VERY expert ;)  After I had written my post， I suddenly realized that Bach of all people has indeed composed music for an eclipse – and that is probably why you brought up the Johannes Passion!!  But of course, if you love music even better than languages...

Re Marcel’s question ---  that is very deep stuff, isn’t it?  Almost as if one had to define religion first– as a specific emotional spectrum or psychological layer.  

The Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Online

http://www.astron.sh.cn/

Very valuable reading material. Esp. the Chinese version of APOD. And interestingly much easier to read than most of the news that Goulnik posts in 88news...

More links welcome!

http://www.t3.rim.or.jp/~star/planet/planetsindex.html