On December 21, 2020 there will be an unusual planetary constellation in the sky. It should be on the evening of December 21 at exactly 7:21 p.m. CET. In the evening hours there will be a so-called Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. This means that both planets are approaching each other in the sky, are only 0.1 degrees apart and thus seem to join into “one bright star”. What is special about it is that the two planets last came as close to each other in 1623 as they did in 2020. 

You can see the event around December 21st in the southwestern sky, best with binoculars. However, it is low on the horizon and so no mountain or hill should be in the way. Now the planets are higher in the night sky, but they are not yet that close together.

What is conspicuous about the Christmas story is that only the magicians knew about the star, the people in Jerusalem not. That indicates that it has something to do with star constellation. The astrologers from Babylonia connected the people of Israel with Saturn. Jupiter was considered the king’s planet. And the constellation of fishes, in which the two planets met for earthly observers, symbolized today’s land of Israel. So there a new king of the Jews was born.

When the wise men from the east, from Babylonia, after the first meeting of Jupiter and Saturn April 7 BC. had set off, they could at the further encounters of the two planets in September and December 7 BC. have just arrived at their destination.

The story sounds plausible. It is quite possible that behind the star of Bethlehem there is the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn from the year 7 BC. Chr.