Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Monday, December 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:06, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:18. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:05 tomorrow morning.

The most popular solution to what the Star of Bethlehem may have been, is a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that occurred in 7 BCE, where Jupiter passed Saturn three times in a few months time. So the event should more probably be called a celestial sign, rather than a star. The conjunction occurred against the constellation of Pisces the fish which was thought to represent the Jews or whoever lived in that area. Such a series of conjunctions against a particular zodiacal constellation would occur only about once every 800 to 900 years. Triple conjunctions aren’t super rare, if you don’t care which constellation it’s happening in front of. We had one in 1981, but it was against the constellation of Virgo.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum