ABC1 Television Guide – Star Of Bethlehem: Behind The Myth

Star Of Bethlehem: Behind The Myth

8:35pm Thursday, 17 Dec 2009 Documentary CC G

The Star of Bethlehem was the brightest star anyone has ever seen. It led the Magi on a search for a new Messiah, yet no one else saw it.

Was it a spectacular comet, a blazing supernova, or an astrologically significant alignment of planets?

This film brings together Biblical scholars, renowned astronomers, and world famous scientists to explain the origins of the Christmas Star. Combining astronomy and astrology with religion and philosophy, this scientific investigation is rooted in the Ancient Near East.

Gathering evidence from Bethlehem to Babylon, the catacombs of Rome to the vaults of the British Museum, this is a quest to uncover the celestial truth behind this most famous of stars.

What did the Magi really see 2000 years ago?

via - ABC1 Television Guide – Star Of Bethlehem: Behind The Myth

This should list most of the conventional explanations for the Star of Bethlehem. It’s on the Australian ABC Channel 1 at 8.35 pm tonight – starting in about 10 minutes.

Compare these interpretations with the the new one that posits Alpha Crucis as the Star of Bethlehem.

[Too much astrology in the program... and pure fantasy... The idea that the Star of Bethlehem had to be one of the brightest supernova, even when no one apart from the Magi seemed to have noticed it, reminds me of those muscular Jesus He-man action dolls  that are modelled off superheroes and that have such a wide spinning-top shaped chest that they would be prone to keeling over with little more than the puff of a breeze.

Anything on the ecliptic - any of the planetary conjunctions - could be seen anywhere around the same latitude in the same region on earth as long as the planets were not also conjunct the sun. A planetary conjunction  provides no rationale for the Magi to travel into the vicinity of Bethlehem.]