Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Tenk Kidd on 20/01/2009 10:30:02

Title: What stars are good candidates for the 'Star of Bethlehem'?
Post by: Tenk Kidd on 20/01/2009 10:30:02

Tenk Kidd asked the Naked Scientists:
   
With good astronomy software readily available nowadays, what good candidates for the 'Star of Bethlehem' would be worth investigating by the PC Astronomer? (http://www.cybersky.com/ has very good demo software.)

I'll hopefully be at the show (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/) as my SL Avatar.

What do you think?

Title: What stars are good candidates for the 'Star of Bethlehem'?
Post by: dentstudent on 20/01/2009 10:40:42

This is a link to the Astronomy Cast podcast that deals with exactly that question. The most recently cited likely cause was not stellar, but a close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, but there are a series of problems associated with this hypothesis.

Astronomy Cast "The Christmas Star" (http://www.astronomycast.com/history/ep-120-the-christmas-star/)

Another option would be to use Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/) software, put in the coordinates from where you would like to view, enter the date, and see what happens!

Happy hunting!