Douglas Cobb | Liberty Voice
According to NASA’s website located at science.nasa.gov, there will be a conjunction between the planets Venus and Jupiter beginning the night of June 29, and lasting through July 4, 2015. The event begs the question, did an ancient conjunction between the planets of Venus and Jupiter form the star of Bethlehem that the Wise Men of the Bible followed 2000 years ago? That is the theory that has not only been put forth by NASA, but many in the scientific community have come to support this recent finding. For the next six days, when the planet Venus has its conjunction with Jupiter, there will be what looks like the joining of two stars in the skies beginning on Monday night, and continuing through Saturday July 4th. It will appear as if one bright light or star forming in the western sky.
While the possibility that this conjunction of the planets was mistaken as being a star and was called the Star of Bethlehem by the Wise Men is just a theory, it is a fairly plausible one. According to Fred Schaaf, Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor, the upcoming conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will closely resemble one that occurred between the years 3 and 2 B.C., which falls within the approximate time frame that the Wise Men were said to have followed the Star of Bethlehem.
Comparing the conjunction of the two planets this year with last year and also with the one that occurred between the years 3 and 2 B.C., Schaaf stated that “all three occurred not far from Regulus, and all were similarly high up in the sky.” The conjunction that happened at around the Biblical time ascribed to when the Wise Men followed the Star of Bethlehem was, as Schaaf said, “separated by about 1°.”
Regardless if the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, often called the king and queen of the planets, really was what the Wise Men, or Magi, of the Bible followed on their route to the baby Jesus, the sight is one that star gazers will likely want to check out, weather permitting. On Tuesday night, the two planets will get as close to each other as they have been in the last two years.
Venus is the third-brightest body in the night sky and Jupiter is the fourth-brightest, though it is much farther away that Venus. The first brightest object in the sky is the sun and the second brightest humans can see from Earth is the moon. Having a quality telescope or an observatory nearby will aid in the chances that stargazers will be able to get the most out of the experience. But if the weather is nice, the conjunction should be fairly easy to see with the naked eye.
As Venus is closer to the sun than Jupiter, it moves through the sky faster, appearing as if it is “chasing” Jupiter. Tuesday night, they’ll be close as Venus prepares to pass the big guy in July. After the conjunction of the two planets, Venus will travel past Jupiter, as both planets continue in their orbits.
Though Venus and Jupiter will not quite “join” in the night sky, they will be so near to each other that if a person held up his or her finger, the tip could look as if it is covering both of the planets at the same time. In North America, they will appear to be a mere third of a degree away from each other and look like a “double star,” in the words of Sky & Telescope’s senior editor, Kelly Beatty.
Venus will look crescent-shaped. To the upper left of the conjunction of the two planets, a bit fainter will be the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo. This conjunction might seem to be rare, but it is actually relatively common. The next time there will be a conjunction between them will be next year, on August 27th. Then, they will be even closer together, appearing to be only 0.1 degrees apart.
In actuality, Venus is quite far from Earth, 58 million miles distant from it. Jupiter is millions of miles further away, approximately 565 million miles away from Earth. That makes Jupiter, which is a lot larger than Venus, look similar in size when seen with the naked eye from Earth.
The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus is really an illusion, with the orbits of the two planets looking as if they are lining up as seen from Earth. While the conjunction is somewhat rare, with the next one going to happen only a year from August, the celestial event is not rare in the grand scheme of things.
According to Phil Plait of New Scientist, while the conjunction, or lining up of planets, exerts somewhat more gravity upon Earth than if the planets were not lined up, if all of the planets were lined up in a conjunction, the overall combined gravity would still be far less than that of the moon. Some people believe that such alignments cause more earthquakes or are a potential sign of doomsday, but even the moon, which exerts a greater amount of gravity on Earth, does not cause a spike in the rate or severity of earthquakes twice a month.
Was the conjunction, which scientist say occurred approximately 2000 years ago in 3 or 2 B.C. between Venus and Jupiter, the same event that the Wise Men, or Magi, believed was the Star of Bethlehem that guided them to the baby Jesus? Perhaps it is possible that nobody will ever know for sure, but the conjunction of the two planets in the night sky will be a celestial event that stargazers will not want to miss. And for those that follow the Christian Faith, perhaps it is a time to pay close attention to the signs of the times.
Written By Douglas Cobb
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Replies
When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. Venus and Jupiter are having a beautiful close encounter in the sunset sky. Here is photographer Marek Nikodem with a friend enjoying the view from Bydgoszcz, Poland:
"It was an amazing evening," says Nikodem, who caught the planets on June 30th at closest approach--about 0.3 degrees apart.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
"after they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." Mathew 2: 9
A thing going and stopping over a place suggest something very near, perharpst just over their heads!
KRISHNA: I disagree. The "Christmas Star" was a massive cluster of planets in the sign of Pisces at the time of the birth of Jesus (March 1, 7 B.C.), and the brightest point within this cluster was the combination of Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury, and the star of Markab. This is based on the best horoscope of Jesus to date (with supporting evidence and research), which was done by Don "Moby Dick" Jacobs (who actually taught astrology at the University of Hawaii). He advocates via his chart that the Christmas star was a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus with the star of Markab; Mercury in conjunction with this combination would attract the astrology visitors (a few days prior to the birth of Jesus) due to the excessive illumination.
This makes sense since Uranus was not discovered at the time and would definitely attract the attention of the Indian astrologers (since the combination would define an excessively bright "star" with illumination greater than what would be expected).
NASA = "never a straight answer."
Well let's hope there is a big change for the good on this Planet
Another source ...more information
Something is going to happen on June 30th that hasn’t happened in over 2,000 years
Jupiter and Venus will merge into a dazzling ”super-star” in the Western horizon by the end of June, NASA says.
The conjunction of the two planets has been building during the month of June and will culminate in a spectacular display on June 30. “Every night in June, the separation between Venus and Jupiter will visibly shrink,” says NASA.
A conjunction is when two or more objects appear very close together on the sky.
On the evening of June 30, Venus and Jupiter will appear in the sky just a third of a degree apart. “That’s less than the diameter of a full Moon. You’ll be able to hide the pair not just behind the palm of your outstretched hand, but behind your little pinky finger,” NASA enthuses.
Sky & Telescope suggests that a similar rare conjunction of Venus and Jupiter may have been what’s been called the ”Star of Bethlehem” in 3-2 BC.
While the conjunction is certainly visible with the naked eye, Sky and Telescope says viewing it with a telescope or binoculars will offer a different perspective: “Both planets will crowd into same telescopic field of view, Venus appearing as a fat crescent and round Jupiter accompanied by its four large moons. The two planets will appear nearly as the same size, but Jupiter, though much larger in reality, is much farther away…. Their globes will contrast dramatically in brightness, with Venus’s crescent appearing dazzling white compared to Jupiter’s duller, striped cloud deck.”
Pat Hartigan, an astronomer at Rice University, says the conjunction on June 30 is the best one we will have for over a decade, rivaled only by one on March 1, 2023, which will not be not quite as close.
So where and when should we look for it? Look to the west-northwest as soon as it gets dark, says Dr. Hartigan. ”After about two hours for most latitudes the objects will become difficult to observe as they begin to set. They are bright. You might mistake them for airplanes.”
Is this a significant astronomical event? Not really. ”These planetary groupings in the sky have no effect on Earth or human affairs – except for one,” says Alan MacRobert at Sky & Telescope. ”They can lift our attention away from our own little world into the enormous things beyond. That’s what amateur astronomers do all the time.”
I can guarantee you that it won't be.
Change won't come to those who don't make it happen.
I fear the "internet lightwarriors" are going to have another great dissappointment here. As always.