The Christmas Star
Said the night wind to the little lamb,
do you see what I see
Way up in the sky, little lamb,
Do you see what I see
A comet in the eastern sky
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite.
– adapted from Gloria Shayne Baker, Nöel Regney
This beautiful Christmas Carol was written relatively recently, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, as a plea for peace. A plea that was ultimately successful at the time but also remains so relevant in our time. It went on to become a very popular song, one that I adapted slightly by changing the line “a star, a star, dancing in the night” to “a comet in the eastern sky.” When Brian Marsden (may he rest in peace) was director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the world’s clearinghouse for anything new that moves or changes in the sky, for example a comet or an exploding star, he and I developed a close friendship. I hoped that one night in late November or December I would discover a comet, and report it to him using the words of the song followed by the discovery position, in right ascension and declination, of the new comet. Although I doubt I will ever find another new comet, the CBAT is now too automated to allow such informality.
Last fall there was a conjunction of The Mars, Venus, and the Moon.
Photograph by David H. Levy Jarnac
Observatory National Sharing the Sky Foundation.
However, this does not mean that I cannot use the famous song to announce the presence of an already discovered comet in the morning sky during this Christmas season. Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) will form the top of a triangle with bright Venus and fainter Mars in the morning sky around the morning of 18 December. Through a small telescope the comet should be an impressive sight.
It is at this season, where family becomes even more important than usual, that some of us wonder if the Christmas Star, made famous in the opening lines of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, was actually a real star or an event in the sky that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ. The relevant portion reads thus:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” (Matthew 2.1-10).
Was the star a real event, or was it simply a creation of the gospel’s writer? One early theory was that the star was actually a comet, specifically Halley’s comet which made an appearance in the sky of 6 B.C.E. However, the Magi were known as astrologers rather than astronomers, and surely not modern sky watchers. They might have been more interested in a predicted alignment of planets rather than something real seen in the night sky. With that in mind, there was a highly unusual conjunction of the sky’s two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky of June 17, 2 B.C.E., at 6:11 PM. Venus and Jupiter were so close that evening that without a telescope, (and there were certainly no telescopes at the time) it would have been impossible to see the two planets as anything other than a single bright object.
There are problems with this theory. First, the Magi saw a star “at its rising” in the East; the book does not make it clear whether they saw the star from an observing site east of Jerusalem, or in the eastern sky. The planetary conjunction would have been very close to setting, not rising, at the time. Although there are other theories, this is the one I prefer. If it is correct, then it actually suggests a birth date for Christ in the middle of the year 2 B.C.E., although Christmas comes on December 25 each year, the choice of day actually dates back to the Roman Saturnalia festival just as the days were beginning to get longer in early winter.
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this is the season to enjoy family and friends, and to renew ourselves. Let it also be the season, on a clear evening, to head outdoors, look up, and appreciate the sublime majesty of the night sky.
