One item, everything we know about it, and everything it is connected to.
Words we use: Mystery A question nobody has answered yet. Clue from people Something people wrote down or told long ago: a chronicle, a diary, a story, a carving. Clue from nature Something nature recorded by itself: tree rings, ice, rock layers, or the leftovers of an exploded star. Hunch Our guess that a clue from people and a clue from nature are about the same event. Book or paper Where we read it, so anyone can check our work. Step Something we did, in the order we did it.
One description of the Moon's colour on that night decides whether the eruption came before or after November 1808. Best places: US newspapers and observers, Mexico City, Lima, Havana, ships in the Pacific, and the Japanese shogunate's astronomers at moonrise.