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Star of Bethlehem ???


Skipper Billy

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4 hours ago, iapa said:

One would assume that they take account of leap years, the change to the Gregorian calendar

if I remember correctly there was a the change in the number of months in the year - October/November/December were one the 8th/9th and 10th monthly of the year.

missing any of those would make a difference

 

I read that when the calendar changed from Julian to Gregorian the date jumped forward a few days, and  there were riots , with people demanding the missing days of their lives back .

Goodness knows what social media /mainstream media / idiots in general would do if something similar happened again !

Edited by Tiny Clanger
said back, meant forward. Eejit !
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On 18/12/2020 at 15:46, Skipper Billy said:

'Star of Bethlehem' - I am seeing in the media more and more reports about next weeks conjunction being a re-run of the 'Star of Bethlehem'.

For a kick off they are NOT stars! Giving them poetic licence and ignoring that fact I looked the location of Jupiter and Saturn around the alleged date of the happening and they were nowhere near each other!! Not even close.

See attached and notice the date - Christmas Eve just before the 'event' - I also scrolled backwards and forwards a few years each way and they were never even close to conjunction !! [I am assuming that Stellarium is accurate for years BC?]

For the pedants - you are quite right my house was not there over 2000 years ago!!!

 

What date did you use for the birth of Christ, according to some the Wise Men saw the 'Star' 2 years before they arrived in Bethlehem, so with the close conjunction in 7 BC, they would have arrived in 5 BC.

John 

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1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

I want to say a big thank you to the OP, the esteemed ‘Skipper Billy’. What a truly remarkable thread from an observation of how the press report this stuff.

I don't believe I have ever been called esteemed before - even tongue in cheek!! 😉

Steaming - yes. Esteemed - never!! 🙂

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1 hour ago, johninderby said:

Latest estimates put the birth of Christ as between 6 and 4 BC not as you would think 0 BC.

I think that was because originally they forgot to include the years that Emperor Augustus reigned as Octavius.

John  

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When making  calculations based on info from the bible, bear in mind that good old Archbishop Ussher used that data to work out the age of the Earth, which he reckoned to have started in 4004 BC . Sometime in the autumn if I recall correctly ...

Later practical geologists including Lyell, Sedgwick and ( a particular hero of mine) the slightly bonkers Dean Buckland found this was simply not enough time for the deposits they saw to have formed, and more scientific  estimates were made, a tad closer to the 4.5 billion years ago (ish) we reckon today.

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Here's my offering, fairly cloudy to start with but it quickly cleared; glad we went out although it was really windy at the top of Tarvit hill.  My two girls acting as 2/3 of the magi :)  Not quite in focus, I blame the remaining 1/3 of the magi!  Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow, we'll give it another go.

Jim

 

large.1210956592_JupiterSaturnConjunctionTarvitHill.jpg.8840ae7578110ebf74ed9972e1391b2d.jpg

 

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Reading all these comments about a fabled star, and all the discussions regarding what the star could have been, the real date Jesus was born, the actual date the star was seen and where...and so on, I am reminded of Carl Sagan and his amazing “Pale blue dot” speech, it puts things into perspective.

This is quickly followed by “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams.

Its nice to get a handle on these things.

It’s nice to get a handle on these things.

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16 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

Reading all these comments about a fabled star, and all the discussions regarding what the star could have been, the real date Jesus was born, the actual date the star was seen and where...and so on, I am reminded of Carl Sagan and his amazing “Pale blue dot” speech, it puts things into perspective.

Its nice to get a handle on these things.

 

I'm hopeful for a framed copy of the pale blue dot speech this year - one of my favourites :)   Another is Sagans  "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." 

Jim

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18 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

Reading all these comments about a fabled star, and all the discussions regarding what the star could have been, the real date Jesus was born, the actual date the star was seen and where...and so on, I am reminded of Carl Sagan and his amazing “Pale blue dot” speech, it puts things into perspective.

This is quickly followed by “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams.

Its nice to get a handle on these things.

It’s nice to get a handle on these things.

We're an insignificant speck in space so why would a God bother with us eh?

Fair enough, I don't believe in a creator or whatever. However,  putting the magic and mystique to one side, it's possible at least some of these events happened and a decent bloke called Jesus who rebelled against the state and preached love etc did exist...

 

 

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39 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

We're an insignificant speck in space so why would a God bother with us eh?

Always assuming there is or was a God that more or less matches up to one of the many manmade religions.

44 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Fair enough, I don't believe in a creator or whatever. However,  putting the magic and mystique to one side, it's possible at least some of these events happened and a decent bloke called Jesus who rebelled against the state and preached love etc did exist...

It would appear more likely than not that a man called Jesus did exist, although whether or not he was the son of God, as described above, is open to discussion. It is also debatable if he believed he actually was the son of God, or was just a regular guy acting out one of the many so called prophesies that were popular at the time. “It is written...” etc.

I don’t pretend to know the answer and nor does anyone else, but people have the prerogative to believe in whatever they wish.

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1 hour ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

We're an insignificant speck in space so why would a God bother with us eh?

Given that God is creator of universe - I don't see him/her lacking much or having much trouble in life - so I'm inclined to believe in his/her good disposition.

Since so many of man kind is interested in him/her - I really see no way of him/her not respond in kind.

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