SYDNEY , Dec. 9 (UPI) -- An Australian astronomer says the Christmas star that led the three Wise Men to Jesus appeared in June, not December.
Dave Reneke, former chief lecturer at the Port Macquarie Observatory in New South Wales who now is news editor of Sky and Space magazine, said complex computer software was used to map the night sky as it would have appeared over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.The research pinpoints the date of Christ's birth as June 17 rather than Dec. 25, The Times of London reported Tuesday.
"Venus and Jupiter became very close in the the year 2 B.C. and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light," he said. "We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star -- but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far."
Probably we should wait for the equatorial astronomers weigh in on this one.
3 comments:
With another Christmas or two we could get this economy up and running again!
I thought everyone knew that the Catholic church is the organization who decided to celebrate Christmas in December, centuries ago. They took Christian holidays and lumped them with pagan holidays that people were more in the habit of celebrating. So this is news how?
Well,I thought Pagans didn't believe in December and assumed Australians were bound to respect northern conventions as to when we say its "winter." Have they tried to pull this thing before? Also it would be like something out of Genesis for the hemispheres and solstices to swap simultaneously, and it jibes suspiciously with the 10,000 year cycle in Earth's magnetic field reversals. I still don't believe Rudolph's nose glows red though.
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