Many explanations have been proposed for the Star of Bethlehem, the star that guided the Magi to Jerusalem. One of the most popular is that of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place during 7BC. Although it is not exactly the same event that is repeating this Christmas, sky watchers can see an [...]
If the seemingly incessant autumnal – and now winter – storms abate for Christmas (and the weather forecast for Spain suggests that they might) you may get a chance to look up at the Christmas sky. If you do so as darkness falls, you will not be able to miss the brilliant, white “star”, low [...]
Afterthought (January 16th 2018): One note to add that bears remembering. As was pointed out in post #9, we know that Chinese records from the period between 20 BC and 1 AD are almost certainly incomplete. In this twenty year period there are just four records. If we follow the conventional reasoning, two of these [...]
My apologies that this wrap-up piece has been delayed. I had intended to have it posted on January 1st, but the previous posting took longer to complete than I expected and, after that date, other commitments stopped me writing for a time. ------------------- After our walk through the evidence and through the different theories for [...]
Chinese Skies For many years the Chinese observations from 5 and 4 BC have created confusion. We have two, similar records in similar dates of consecutive years. First, the Chi’en-han-shu. Chinese records generally use three words to describe new objects in the sky: k'o-hsing, or Guest Star, for novae; hui-hsing, or Broom Star, for a [...]
Until the early 1960s the resources for studying the ancient sky were minimal. Astronomers such as Johannes Kepler could calculate the positions of the planets two thousand years ago, but laboriously by hand. Astronomers could make reasonable estimates of when Comet Halley would return and could look back to see if there was any bright [...]
There have been dozens, if not hundreds of theories to explain the Star of Bethlehem. In this sense it is similar to the death of the dinosaurs where many dozens of theories have been proposed, but just two or three are real candidates to be correct. Here are a few of the less likely ones: [...]
When you think of Christmas, what do you see in your mind’s eye? For many people it is the image of the three kings, crossing the desert on their camels, following an overwhelmingly bright star. For me, the image of Christmas is encapsulated in the words of the carol: We three kings of Orient are [...]
Why do we celebrate Christmas in December? It is actually a long and quite complicated story. Most people do not realise that the date that we celebrate Christmas Day now is not the same as it was in times of Christopher Columbus. Similarly, they do not realise that many of our Christmas traditions were imported [...]
Before we can hope to answer the question of what the Star of Bethlehem was, we must first find out when the events associated with it related by Matthew and Luke actually happen: when was Jesus born, or phrased differently, when was the first Christmas? This is actually one of the most difficult elements of [...]
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