SEYNSGESCHICHTE: the so-said STAR OF BETHLEHEM - occurrence date 7 BCE

The astroNomical - therefore historical - phenomenon nowadays known as the sosaid STAR OF BETHLEHEM was in effect, really, a triple Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurred in the year 7 BCE in the constellation Pisces, at the following dates (see diagrams above): 

May 30th   -   October 1st   -   December 6th

Could it have been seen from the Sun, the same physical phenomenon would have occurred only once, in the date September 1st, 7 BCE. So this is a trine-and-one astroNomical phenomenon, depending on the view point from which it is 'seen'.

The phoenix and the Graces

The astroNomical situation you can see on the left is what in the ancient times was allegorized in the image of the bennu/phoenix.
For us today - after Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton - it is simple to visualize and graphically represent a planetary situation like that on the left, but it was not so twenty or more centuries ago when most people thought that the planetary system was geocentrical.
Do you remember the night dialogue in John's Gospel 3,3 between Jesus and Nicodemus? It has to do exactly with the said difficulty, to abstract from the perceptive reality of the planetary movements to gain, to reach the objective reality of the heliocentrical structure of the planetary system.

The triple conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn takes place when at the moment of the heliocentrical J-S conjunction our Earth will be on the line of that central alignment (point E) or in a circular sector of not more than about 30° (red sector on the figure). In this case the central alignment (the II al.) will be preceded and followed by two other alignments, as in figure.

I and III alignments happen during progressive motion of the planets, while on the contrary the II central alignment takes place during the apparent retrograde motion of the heavenly bodies. What - this is the new revelation I give today - was also allegorized in the group of the three Graces, two showing their front side and one, the central, showing its back side (side B).

I think it's enough for today, then I close sending friendly greetings to all my readers, wherever you are in the world. Bye bye.

Happy New Year .. 2017 !! ..

.. we should have today wished one another IF the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year (that we call nowadays) A.D. 531, when he was trying to count how many years before the Incarnationis Domini nostri Iesu Christi had occurred, if he had known better the middle time interval between two Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions.

He very probably knew that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction he was observing night after night in those years 530-531 (graphics here on the left) was the 27th after the memorable triple Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that happened more than five centuries before in the constellation of Pisces, the one that - we know nowadays - happened in the year 7 b.C. at Herod's time and that is commonly referred to as the 'star of Bethlehem' (see graphics behind the title of the blog). But he probably didn't know the right time interval between a J-S conjunction and the next, so he was 6 years wrong in his estimation of the time when the triple J-S conjunction in Pisces had occurred. He said in the second half of Rome-year 753 instead of year 747 ab Urbe condita.

That's why we have wished today one onother "Happy 2011 !" instead of "Happy 2017", which would have been more correct and really ab Incarnatione Domini nostri Iesu Christi.

Anyway.. "Happy New Year" to all my readers, wherever you are in the almost 70 countries where this blog is read.

The Star of Bethlehem (7 b.C.)

In these December days of the year 7 b.C. the triple conjunction between the planets Jupiter and Saturn, on the background of the stars of the Fishes constellation, was going to its end. As everyone of you, my readers, can see on the graphics on the left, in these days Jupiter - after having been at the right of 'its father' Saturn between October 1st and December 5th - was newly again at its left and the visual angular distance Jupiter-Saturn (1° 16' 59" on December 18th) was now rapidly increasing .

The three alignments of this rare planetary event had been respectively on May 29th, October 1st and on December 5th, while the total time interval of this J-S conjunction during which the planets had an angular distance of less the 3° was from April 27th 7 b.C. till to January 14 of year 6 b.C., about 8.5 months. A sort of heavenly pregnancy, the ideal celestial context for the birth of Jesus Christ, at the same time son of man and god.

Fenomenologia della Stella di Betlemme - Phenomenology of the Star of Bethlehem

The diagram you see here links is relative to an astroNo-
mical phenomenon which took place during the year 7 BCE in the zodiacal constellation of Pisces and which was terminating in these days of December of that year.

This diagram can be generated by anyone of you by means of an astroNomical software and refers to the triple conjunction between the two naked-eye-visible planets Jupiter (the royal star) and Saturn (El, the star of Ysra_el). Almost the totality of scholars who studied the question (and I among them) has the opinion that this is the 'star' of the Gospel according to Matthew [Mt 2, 1-2]. As can easily be seen in the diagram [points of minimum of the red curve (note 1)], the three longitude alignments of the planets took place at the following dates:

1) May 29th, 7 BCE,
at about L(geocentric longitude)=351° with a residual angular distance of 59' 6";

2) October 1st,
at about L= 347° with a r.a.d. of 58' 29" and finally

3) December 5th, 7 BCE
at about L=345° with a r.a.d. of 1° 3' 15".

From an astroNomical point of view, this J-S triple conjunction wasn't very particular among other similar conjunctions, because: a) the time interval between the first and the second alignment amounted to more than 4 months while that between the second and the third alignment amounted to only 64-65 days; b) the two planets remained at about one degree of angular distance, that is about the double of the full moon apparent diameter.

On this day (December 21th) the uncommon J-S triple conjunction was practically at its end: Jupiter was newly at the link side (eastwards) of 'its father' Saturn and their angular velocity were such that their angular distance of 1° 25' was growing at the rate of about 3' per night.

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[1 ] For computing technique reasons astronomical software programs indicate with a minus sign (-) the years 'before Christ' or 'Before Common Era, BCE' according to the following rule

- n (softw. programs) = (n + 1) BCE (historical)