The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn happens from around now 19th December until the 23rd December 2020. We can look up (weather allowing please, please) to see Jupiter and Saturn very close together, less than half the width of a full moon apart. It’s going to be the closest together they’ve been seen in 400 years. We won’t see the like again until 2080 astronomers say.
The peak of the conjunction happens at 10.37 am PST on Monday 21st December 2020
The celebrated German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1603. And the very next year he saw a supernova brighter than the brightest stars. Kepler calculated that a “Triple” conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn had happened in 7 BC. He speculated that there may have been a supernova too; all seen together to create the Star of Bethlehem (or Christmas Star).
The Star of Bethlehem guided the Magi from the East to Bethlehem where they gave their gifts in adoration of the newborn baby Jesus.
A Triple Conjunction happens when the earth’s orbit and Jupiter and Saturn are aligned in such a way that a conjunction happens 3 times in the same year. It did happen in 7 BC. British astronomer David Hughes used the Triple Conjunction to explain how Jupiter and Saturn could, as a bright star, lead the Magi first one way, then disappear and then stand over the baby in Bethlehem.
Here’s a star candidate for the ‘Star of Bethlehem’:
See this coin here: https://praefectuscoins.com/shop/greek/seleucis-ad-pieria-antioch-silanus-legatus-syriae-circa-12-13-ae-20-star-of-bethlehem/
Another astronomer speculates that it was the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in 2 BC that created the Star of Bethlehem. Jesus would be a spring baby, while shepherds watched their flocks at night appropriately.
Other astronomers cite Chinese records of a supernova and allow 5 BC as a plausible date.
There’s another theory of the Star Bethlehem and it was inspired by this particular type of coin. Astronomer Michael Molnar has published a book with the thesis that this coin depicts Jupiter rising in Aries in 6 B.C.
It happened in April. Jupiter appears, rising, very bright, in the East after its long journey around the far side of the Sun. A bright star in Aries (which Ptolemy noted as the symbol of Judea). Molynar tells a story of how the Wise Men were guided by Jupiter over the Ram. It was this coin type that inspired him. (1)
But isn’t 6 BC still too early for Christmas?
Perhaps the story of wise men from the east and an astrological portent were necessarily to be woven into the early stories of Jesus. A timeless validation that all pagans would be familiar with.
Or perhaps as Hubert J. Bernhard who directed the San Francisco Planetarium once said:
“If you accept the story told in the Bible as the literal truth, then the Christmas Star could not have been a natural apparition. Its movement in the sky and its ability to stand above and mark a single building; these would indicate that it was not a normal phenomenon, but a supernatural sign. One given from on high and one that science will never be able to explain.” (2)
(1) The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi by Michael R. Molnar
(2) Thank you Was the Star of Bethlehem a Star, Comet … or Miracle?
By Joe Rao December 23, 2011 on space.com
