In the scene where the villagers looked up at a bright comet in the night sky.... which comet was that? It seemed awfully big, and bright (it looked like a major comet sighting, like a Halley's or Hale-Bopp). But so far I haven't seen any documented reference to a large bright comet seen sometime in mid-1940's.
Anybody??
I'm curious too.
shareI could be wrong, and I'm not sure the dates match up, but I was just reading about the rediscovery of the near-earth asteroid: 69230 Hermes. It passed Earth in 1937 and 1942 and was known to have made the closest known approach of an asteroid to the Earth until 1989.
Just by chance, I just rewatched the movie and then found this. Not sure if it would have the same "comet trail" that is seen in the movie though, and referenced in a comment below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/69230_Hermes
That supposedly refers to the appearance of a bright comet in the sky in 1949 -- I believe it is an unnamed comet, but it is referenced in The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 by Tséring Shakya.
shareInteresting. Perhaps it's this comet, then:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1949PA.....57..351V