Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-12-06
THE STAR OF Bethlehem.
Probably 1t Was Venus at Its Most Brf,.
liant Stage.


liant Stage.
Some time ago various newspapers
OF Europe and America contained the
startling intelligence that the star
which guided the 'swise men. would
again appear. This star was con-
nected with that celebrated one which.
three hundred and eighteen wears ago.
suddenly disappeared from the con-
steIiatlon of Cassiopeia, and it was
found that this star of 1872 had pre-
viously appeared in the years 1864 and
9aa. and. if counted back, must have
appeared in the year of the birth of
christ. 1t these facts were well estab-
ilshed, we must certainly expect the
star 10 appear again in our DAYS
we should then see new body in
our heavens, entirely unlike any
hxed star. to be seen in full daylight,
which would in short time again dis
appear. Every astronomer in recent
times has asked hundreds of questions
on the subject. 1t is true that the Star
OF Bethlehem will again appear? Is it
periodical? Is its place in the sky ap-
pointed? The next question is. What
really happened in 1873?
1t was few months after St Bar
tholomew's Night, Tycho Brahe, the
great observer of those days, tells US
that: ''One evening, as was watching
the heavens in my accustomed man
ner, saw, to my great establishment,
in the constellation Cassiop Ella, a bril-
liant star of unusual clearness." This
was on November IL, 1872. Three DAYS
before the star had been seen by Cor
nelius Comma, who spoke of it as '.this
new Venus" In December of the same
year it luster began to wane; and in
March, 1874, it had entirely disap-
peared. leaving no trace. AS to the
stars of 945 and 1854, we have no au-
thorlty except that of the Bohemian
astrologer, Cyprian Lowitz. No his
torian mentions them, and the Chinese
chroniclers, who watched all appear
ances in the sky with great care. do
not speak of them. Even granting the
appearance of these stars to have been
fact, their resemblance to the Star of
Bethlehem is doubtful. 1t is true that
by counting back we come to the year
$50, Sic and o; but the star should have
again appeared some time between 1880
and 1891.
With regard to the Star of Bethlehem
there are five assumptions. Q) 1t had
no existence, and the entire statement
is beautiful oriental fairy tale. (2)
The fixed star, seen by the wise men,
was Venus, at the time of it's greatest
splendor. 81 1t was periodical star
like that of 1872. a. The phenomenon
was occasioned by a conjunction of
planets. 90 1t was comet. OF these
assumptions the most proba bic is
the second. That it was pc
riodical star is scarcely likely, for
Ptolemy and Ma-tuan-lin would have
spoken of it. The fourth statement
was suggested in 1896 by the German
astronomer Ideler, and repeated by
Encke in 1881. In the year 3, i. C.,
there were conjunctions of the planets
Jupiter. Mars and Saturn on May 30,
September 8 and December 5, but on
none of these days We're the planets
nearer together than a degree, so that
the wise men must have been very
near-sighted to take them for one
star. The fifth assumption is also not
to be considered. for people already
knew how to distinguish comet from
other stars, and besides, we have no
knowledge of comet at that time.
For all these reasons we have not the
least occasion to expect the return of
the Star of Bethlehem at the close of
our century. And even if such star
should appear, it would simply be the
twenty-sixth such case observed in
historical times. and the interest at
tached to it would be purely astronom-
ical.-Deutsch Revue.