HAVE YOU SEEN THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM?

I walked out in my front lawn tonight, December 21, and there in the southwestern sky was a very large, very bright star that seemed to have a tail. It was larger and much brighter than any star I've ever seen before. I would certainly say it was "new."

Turns out, it is what astronomers call the "Great Conjunction" -- Jupiter and Saturn aligning themselves so they seem to merge into a single luminous body as viewed from Earth. This happens about every 20 years, but it only happens in the Christmas sky at night once every 800 years. And this December 21, the alignment occurs much closer to Earth than it has in the past several centuries.

It was in the 1600s that astronomer Johannes Kepler* proposed that this planetary conjunction may have been the Star of Bethlehem that led the wise men to Christ's manger around 7 B.C.

What a comforting thought, that we might actually be viewing the same "star" that the wise men saw 2,000 years ago. I hope it gives us as much comfort and hope as it gave those men!

Merry Christmas!

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Johannes Kepler is called the Father of modern astronomy. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion. He also invented the telescope. In addition to astronomy, Kepler was widely recognized as an expert in mathematics and scientific investigation.