[Tenk Kidd]

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 as my SL Avatar.

What do you think?

[dentstudent]

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"

Another option would be to use Stellarium software, put in the coordinates from where you would like to view, enter the date, and see what happens!

Happy hunting!