Night Sky Brings A December Show
I know the clouds have prevented western Montana skygazers from seeing much at night recently, but we have more in store in the next few days. Unfortunately, I m noticing a line of storms heading our way from the Pacific coast, too. The Geminids meteor shower was apparently a pretty good one with over 100 meteors per hour at its peak. Our western Montana sky was filled with clouds, not meteors. Even the folks who were watching the total eclipse of the sun in South America this week generally were looking through clouds.
To make you feel a little better, the two recent storms on the Sun that sent energy our way were supposed to produce Northern Lights last weekend and this week. Well, the storms missed the planet and the colors were only visible in the usual places above the Arctic Circle. You can see some of the photos at spaceweather.com.
That is suspiciously near to Christmas day. Is there any relation to the Star of Bethlehem?
Funny you should ask. The Star of Bethlehem that guided the three wise men to the place of Jesus Christ’s birth may have been a great conjunction, too. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica explains, several conjunctions occurred “within 10 years of the chronological point now taken as the beginning of the Christian era”.
One of these was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which in 7BC were within one degree of each other three times in eight months. The Star of Bethlehem could also have been Venus and Jupiter, which in 2BC, “would have appeared to observers in Babylon to have merged just before setting in the general direction of Bethlehem to the west”.
Before you begin.
Take a moment and breathe. Place your hand over your chest area, near your heart. Breathe slowly into the area for about a minute, focusing on a sense of ease entering your mind and body. Click here to learn why we suggest this.
We are having a Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius on December 14th for the majority of the world and in the early hours of the 15th for Eastern Asia and Australia area. It will be visible from the majority of South America and from a small portion of Africa. The path of totality will cross over parts of Chile and Argentina which will be the only spots to see the full eclipse. All other areas of visibility will only see partial eclipses depending on their proximity to the eclipse path.