I don't believe it. Fired up my Starry Night and set it for that date. There was a new moon on April 5th (April 3rd wasn't fully new yet). Jupiter is pretty close to Regulus but not a conjunction. Venus was almost at the horizon and in Auriga while Jupiter was in Leo (near Regulus).
Now new moon and Jupiter near but not conjuncted with Regulus could be errors in calculations. However with Venus being basically in a completely different sector that blows his "finding" out of the water.
I still consider the Star of Bethlehem to be a comet (which would last in visible sky for a week or so) or other temporary celestial occurance like a very bright supernova (which would only last a few days).
Been thinking awhile of aquiring that...my old DOS Sky Globe just isn't quite the same under Win-95, 98, & now XP. Besides these new machines don't have 5 1/4" floppy drives! LOL
Some questions, just FReeper to FReeper:
Does it really perform as advertised; and, does it compensate for the change between Gregorian & Juian calandars, when going back that far; or is that built in? Does it even matter?
Since the Jewish calandar is so different than ours either way, and so many Biblical events are based upon it or on Jewish festivals, does that toss a monkey wrench into Starry Night's works for this kind of thing?
The passages in the New Testament would seem to indicate that the “star” could not have been a comet or supernova. When the magi arrived in Jerusalem and told Herod why they were there, he had to consult with his scholars and have the “star” explained to him before he understood why this was such a big deal. That seems to indicate that the “star” was actually something in plain sight in the night sky, but which looked pretty ordinary to anyone who didn’t study astrology and understand exactly what they were looking at.