Caption: A detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, now exhibited at the Bayeux Museum, Bayeux, Normandy, France.
The detail shows Halley's comet. The Latin text reads ISTI MIRANT STELLA: These ones are looking in wonder at the star (see Wikipedia: Omen: Good or bad). Of course, comets are NOT stars in modern astro jargon.
The Bayeux Tapestry is sort of a Medieval graphic novel.
It's all about the Norman conquest of England---1066 and All That.
In fact, comets, the long-haired stars, have always been considered portentous, ominous.
They are strange looking---hairy.
They seemed irregular unlike other astronomical phenonema. It was NOT until Edmond Halley (1656--1742) in 1705 recognized the periodicity his eponymous comet (Halley's comet) that comets were tamed to regularity in some cases.
Comets were thought to herald calamities or disasters (i.e., a bad star events):
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Credit/Permission: Medieval artists,
circa 1070
(uploaded to Wikipedia by
User:Urban,
2005) /
Public domain.
Image link: Wikipedia:
File:Tapestry of bayeux10.jpg.
Local file: local link: bayeux_tapestry.html.
File: Art file:
bayeux_tapestry.html.