Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Friday, December 24th.  The sun will rise at 8:17.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:06.   The moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 9:21 this evening.

Before the moon rises tonight the planet Jupiter will shine brightly as our Christmas star.  The actual Star of Bethlehem, if it was a natural phenomenon, was not the bright star that we imagine.  The Chinese, who were excellent observers and catalogers of novae and comets recorded nothing unusual in the time period of the Nativity.  The Magi, if that’s the correct translation of the visitors, were astrologers who saw significance in the mundane movement and patterns of the planets.  They were the only ones who did.  The Chinese had a whole other system of astrology.  The Jews themselves had Biblical prohibitions against astrology.  So the Star remains a mystery.  Have a merry Christmas.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.