The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-11-09
THE STAR or BETWLEUEH

Some time ago various newspapers
Of Europe and America contained the
s'artli, Intelligence that the star
which guided the wise Men would
again appe;r. This star was connected
with that celebrated one which, 31S
yea ago, suddenly disappeared from
the constellation Of Cas>iopeia, and 1t
was found that this star of 1872 had
previously appeared in the Yeas 1864
and 945, and-if counted back-must
have appeared in the year OF the birth
of Christ. If these facts were well
established, we must certainty expect
the star to appear again in our days.
We should then see new body in the
heavens, entirely unlike any fixed star
to be seen in full daylight which
would, in short time, again dis
appear.
Every astronomer in recent time
has asked hundreds Of questions on
this subject. Is it true that the Star
Of Bethl hem will again appear? Is it
periodical: is its place in the sky APP
pointed! The next question is, What
really happened in 1872:
1t was a few months after st.
Bartholmew's Night. Tycho Brahe,
the great observer of those DAYS, tells
us that: "One evening, as | was
watching the heavens in my accustom-
ed manner, saw, to my great a>tonish-
ment, in the constellation of Cassiopeia
brilliant star of unusual clearness. .
This was on November IL, 1872. Three
days before the star had been seen by
Cornelius Comma, W no spike of it as
this new Venus In ID, cemb of
the same year, Is suster began to
wane; and in March, 1874, it had en-
tirely disappeared, leaving no trace.
AS to the stars of 945 and 1864. we
have no authori y excep, that Of the
Bohemian astro!o5'r, Cyprian Lowitz.
No historian mentions item and the
Chinese cnrCnicI re-. who watched all
appearances in t e sky W tn great care
do not speak rem. Even granting
the appearance OF tn s. stars to have
been a fact, tn i, resemblance to the
Star of Bethlehem is doubt 'ul. 1t is
true, that by counting back we come
to the years $50, 3l5 and 0; but the
star should have again appeared some
time between 1880 and 1891.
With regard to the Star of Bcthle-
hem there are five assumptions. ]. 1t
had no exis,anence, and the entire
statement is beautiful oriental fairy
tale. 2. The fixed star, seen bv the
Wise Men, Was Venus, 1t the time of
It's greatest splendor. 3. 1t was a
periodical star like that of 1872. 1.
The phenomenon was accustomed by a
conjunction of planets. 5. 1t was a
comet. Of these assumptions, the
most probable is the second. That
it was periodical star is scarcely
likely, for Ptolemy and Ma tuan-lin
would have spoken of it. The fourth
statement was suggested in 1926 by
the German astronomer Ideler, and
repeated by Encke in 1881. In the
year 3 B. c. there was conjunctions of
the planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn
on May 20, September 3 and Deem
Der 5, but on none of these days were
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 assump-
ton is also not to be considered, for
people already knew how to DIS
tinguishs comets from other stars, and
besides, we have no knowledge of a
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 a
star should appear it would simply be
the ta enly-slxth such case observed in
historical times, and interest attached
to it would be purely astronomical.