Revealing the Star of Bethlehem

There was a hokey Halloween special on TV about why people are afraid of the dark.

In that special they noted that scientists actually have a scale rating darkness on earth from 1 to 10. I forget which way the scale went. But they said that NOWHERE in the U.S. are we TOTALLY free of light pollution. You have to go at least 300 miles from shore or to places like East Africa to experience total darkness at night.

Light pollution seriously interferes with astronomical observations.

Its hard for moderns to appreciate how very impressed the ancients, living in a world without electricity, were impacted by celestial events at night.

I have to check out all of SunkenCivs links and I thank him for those sources.

The link I provided references a book I’d like very much to read.

As a Christian, I believe in Christ, his birth and God generated miracles.

But I think that at times God works “miracles” through very naturally occurring events.

For instance, the fog that came up as Washington was evacuating his troops from the catastrophe on Long Island to safety on Manhattan. Without that fog, the British very well would have captured the entire rebel army and ended the war right there.

And I think that God was very much interested in America at one time and still may be, despite the rejection of Him by the cultural elites.

God works in mysterious ways.

Have a Great Christmas.

Last Summer, my wife and I took our Rubicon out on to the prairie near Wheatland, Wy. With the top down and no light we enjoyed a bottle of wine and the magnificence of the stars.

That is when she told me she could retire out west without a thought of leaving the east coast.

I think one problem modern people, especially living in the many areas of the world with air pollution, have is how dim the stars appear. A few years ago I was at the beach in Chincoteague. VA. There had been rain in the afternoon (clearing the atmosphere), and then a major power failure at least 10 miles up and down the coast. I mean it was DARK!! When we went out to see if our neighbors had lost their electricity, we were astonished at the magnificence of the stars. They looked about 10 times as bright as I had ever seen them. Great gleaming blotches. The planets, being mobile, would have been of special interest to the ancients. As the Chinese report a comet, was there any record of one in the Middle East, besides the biblical account? If it was significant, I should think it might appear in Roman, Greek, or Egyptian records.

Yeah. I remember talking to a World War II Navy vet over the amateur radio. He served aboard the destroyer, the USS Melvin. Because of the threat of the Japanese subs in the Pacific, they had to run "lights out" at night. He was an electrician's mate and when they had to use a flashlight, it only had a slit. He remembers seeing the stars and the Milky Way was so bright out on the dark Pacific. My father told me the same thing when he was sent to Korea on a troop ship in the mid 1950's.


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Thanks again ZULU. Note: this topic is from 2010. Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. Have Astronomers Found the Star of Bethlehem? Lost Syriac Text Gives Magi's View of the Christmas Story 2,100 year-old Greek coin may have marked rare astronomical event OU Professor Says Ancient Text Reveals Startling Information About Magi, Star of Bethlehem Revealing the Star of Bethlehem Did You Know About the Relics of the Three Wise Men? The Magi and the Star 'Jesus was born in June', astronomers claim An Astronomer's Explanation For The Star Of Bethlehem Star of Bethlehem Texas A & M Professor Claims Proof Of Star Of Bethlehem DATE OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST (The Star that Astonished the World) Professor Says Historys Best Known and Most Debated Star Proven The Star of Bethlehem [Bristol Astronomical Society] The Christmas Star What Was The Star? THE CHRISTMAS STAR Researcher has theory on the 'Star of Bethlehem' The Christmas Star Early Christians Hid The Origins Of The Bethlehem Star To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.