{"id":1329,"date":"2013-12-22T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2013-12-21T05:36:56","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T05:36:56","slug":"the-star-of-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/22\/the-star-of-bethlehem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Star of Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a1SkyCaramba! Weekly astronomy blog for the week ending December 28, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A popular question this time of year is about the Star of Bethlehem. People wonder just what it was. One explanation says it\u2019s just a tall tale that made its way into Christian scriptures. Another says it was an atmospheric phenomenon called St. Elmo\u2019s Fire. And another says it was something only the wise men who traveled to Bethlehem could see because God wanted only them to see it. Other explanations look to astronomy and astrology.<\/p>\n

Looking for long ago astronomical events is easy with modern computing. Knowing what astrologers thought is a challenge though. And divergent historical records confound us as we try to put things on a timeline.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s remember that the Christian year count wasn\u2019t used anywhere until a papal scholar estimated 532 years to have passed since Jesus Christ\u2019s birth. He\u2019s now thought to have erred by perhaps a decade. So as we impose years prior to A.D. 532 on the past, we find that Jesus was likely already walking and talking in 1 B.C. when our intuitive reckoning would have us thinking he wasn\u2019t born yet.<\/p>\n

Now our discussion can include astronomical events that happened as far back as about 12 B.C. Halley\u2019s Comet made an appearance in 12 B.C. Only a few historians think it was a likely Star of Bethlehem though.<\/p>\n