December 21, 2020

‘Christmas Star’ show to appear tonight

REGIONAL
Staff report

Jupiter and Saturn are pictured in the sky over Rome Dec. 21, 2020, in an astronomical sight known as the Great Conjunction. NASA said “it’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night.” (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

SPRINGFIELD – What’s been dubbed the “Christmas Star” will make an appearance come sunset, tonight, Monday, Dec. 21 on the winter solstice. The once every twenty-year conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will appear to merge into a single bright point of light in the low western sky. Because it is occurring so close to Christmas, it has led people to link it to the Star of Bethlehem described in the Gospel of Matthew.

According to NASA, Jupiter and Saturn have not lined up this close and at night in nearly 800 years in what’s been called the Great Conjunction.

“It’s usually that planets are sort of scattered around the sky randomly, but they are actually going in orbits and Jupiter every 12 years and Saturn every 29 years. Every two decades or so, Jupiter and Saturn meet up, along with the earth, and create a straight line. You can draw a line through the three planets and they seem to pass next to each other. It’s called a conjunction,” said Father Doug McGonagle, pastor of Our Lady of the Valley parish in Easthampton. Father McGonagle earned a bachelor’s and doctoral degree in astronomy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Father McGonagle said the spectacle in the sky tonight might not have much to do with the birth of Jesus.

“What we’re talking about with Saturn and Jupiter coming up is actually an astronomical event. It’s something that we moderns get really excited about. But back at the time of Jesus’ birth, we’re talking about astrology. And what happened there was an astrological event, a regal portent of the star lining up to predict the birth of a great king,” he said.

“And so the planets played a part in it. Jupiter and Saturn in fact were prominent, but it wasn’t such a Stephen Spielberg spectacular. It was more subtle than that.”

Father McGonagle, who has studied the star of Bethlehem, points to research done by Michael Molnar, a former astronomer at Rutgers University, who wrote the book, The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi. Molnar describes ancient coins that show a leaping ram looking back at a star. His research also indicates an eclipse of Jupiter by the moon within the timeframe of Jesus’ birth.

“Back in the year zero, the magi were astrologers. When they looked in the sky, they were interpreting, finding meaning for signs of what was going to happen in the future. For them it would be that the planets were arranged in such a way that somebody born at that place and time would be a king,” he said.

He explained that while the Great Conjunction on Dec. 21 might not be a repeat of the Christmas Star, it certainly speaks to the “glory of God.”

“It’s always a great time to look up in the sky. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The more you study astronomy, the more you find out about the God who created all of it,” he said.