How to see ‘Christmas star’ above Albany
Scholars say rare celestial event may have led 3 Wise Men
The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of a “star” that led three wise men across the Persian deserts to find Jesus. Historians believe that star was actually a conjunction of two planets, Saturn and Jupiter, so closely and rarely aligned that they blazed in the sky like one star.
Now, for the first time since 1226 A.D., that Christmas star will be burning in the night sky. University at Albany physics professor Kevin Knuth says it will be possible to see it in the next ten nights despite the snow still in the Capital Region forecast.
“The two planets are millions of miles apart but so closely aligned on December 21, with Jupiter in front of Saturn, that from our vantage point on Earth, they look like one body,” Knuth told the Times Union.
But the weather forecast for the night of Dec. 21 is snow flurries.
“Let’s hope they ’re wrong; it does seem like there’s a lot of cloudy nights in the Capital Region,” Knuth said in a goodnatured way.”that will be the night they are the closest together but they will be visible the nights after Christmas. The two planets will be further apart after the 21st and look more like two objects instead of one brilliant star.”
The partly cloudy nights of Dec. 22 and 26 look like good bets for Christmas star viewing. And weather forecasts that are days away can change. Some of next week’s snow-laden clouds may not materialize.
Knuth reminds Capital Region stargazers that Jupiter and Saturn set at about 7 p.m. in the sky, meaning the blazing “star” will no longer be visible from our area after 7. He recommends checking on the skies shortly after sunset.
The weather has blocked his chances of seeing cosmic phenomenon occasionally, not just on Earth, but on Mars. He and some colleagues went to the Ualbany observatory one clear night to study the surface of Mars. But a giant dust storm was sweeping across Mars so all they could see was a red blur.
Knuth has a doctorate in physics and a minor in mathematics and has worked at the NASA Ames Research Center and been a Cornell University instructor for the medical college’s Department of Physiology and Biophysics. He’s done research in the fields of cyberphysics and robotics and foundations of quantum theory. One of his current projects is studying planets orbiting stars that are too far away for data about their atmospheres to be gathered so “it’s not possible to know if there is life on them.”
In 2021, he will be working with the U.S. Navy on a research vessel off the California coast to try and figure out what those UFOS were that Navy pilots filmed in 2004 and again in 2015. The video was declassified and released to the public last year. The video shows oblong objects speeding, rotating and turning upside down as the young pilots enthusiastically pursue them.
Knuth wrote in an opinion piece for The Conversation that the search for extraterrestrial life is worthy of serious scientific study, despite the tendency of some scientists to dismiss it as frivolous.
Most of the comments about the article from scientists were supportive.
There was blow back from creationist readers upset because they believe life on other planets challenges the Bible’s depiction of God creating the Earth and humans.
That is not an opinion he shares.
“The Bible is about a person’s relationship with God,” he said. And in his view, if there are beings on some unknown planet far away, they may cherish their own personal relationships with God, too.