by The Great Christ Comet- Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem (retail) (epub)
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on August 17, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on September 30, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on December 10–17, 7 BC
3
-12.3
-12.1
-11.1
-10.0
-9.7
-9.4
4
-14.8
-14.6
-13.4
-12.2
-11.8
-11.2
5
-17.4
-17.1
-15.7
-14.2
-13.9
-13.2
TABLE 10.7 The Christ Comet’s apparent magnitude on October 20, 6 BC.
At this climactic moment in the cometary apparition, the comet was apparently 180 degrees long, its silvery-grey tail streaming straight up to the zenith and all the way across the sky to the western horizon. The whole comet, including the coma and tail, seems to have looked like an iron scepter with a beautiful orbed top. Indeed, as the Magi turned and gazed toward the western horizon at the tail jutting up from it, and followed its length all the way up over their heads and back behind them to the east, they would have got the impression that the majestic scepter was resting on the ground in the west. Since by this time the Magi understood that the comet represented the Messiah, they would naturally have regarded the scepter as touching the earth in Judea.76 Those interpreting the celestial narrative in Biblical terms, including some within the Jewish community and the Magi, would have had no doubt that this symbolized the iron scepter of the messianic Son of God who was, according to Psalm 2, going to reign over the nations. The messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17 would have strongly come to mind: “A star shall come out of Jacob; and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” The moment of fulfillment had come. Somewhere in the west, more specifically Judea, the Messiah was being born.
On October 20, Earth was located at what could be described as another crossroads (or “interchange”) between its orbit and the comet’s orbit, even as the comet was seemingly headed straight for it. The comet would get there only 9 days later. It was effectively staring Earth in the face. The comet was only 0.21 AU from Earth when it played the part of the baby newly born, and it was still coming closer (fig. 10.29).77 Its long tail was extending well past Earth and close to it.
FIG. 10.29 October 20, 6 BC: What was happening in outer space. The comet was fast approaching Earth even as Earth was crossing the line of the comet’s orbit. It should be remembered that the tail would have been much longer than this illustration shows. Also, the tail would have been sharply curved backwards, although the curvature would not have been apparent to Earth-dwellers. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
Descent into the Light of the Sun
As thrilling as the cometary baby’s birth was, onlookers following the narrative of the celestial drama would still have been concerned that Hydra might yet intervene to devour the newborn. Naturally the Magi and others enthralled by the unfolding story would have got up early on October 21 to see what would happen next. As they looked at the predawn scene, they would have seen that the cometary coma had jumped down a further 6 degrees (into the constellation Libra). In diameter the coma was something like 18% larger than the day before, although the increasing sunlight may well have meant that this was not apparent. The magnitude was now -11.4, with the coma benefiting from a remarkable brightness boost of about 5 magnitudes (due to its large phase angle—166 degrees). The coma appeared to be heading toward the horizon and into the intense light of the Sun; it was heliacally setting. It was clear that the coma-baby would soon completely disappear from the eastern horizon and that the predawn drama would come to an end. Since the Sun was playing the role of God in the celestial play, the movement of the coma-baby down toward the horizon and into the sunlight was most naturally interpreted to mean that the messianic baby would be rescued from Hydra by God.
By the morning of October 22, the nucleus had descended by more than 8 degrees, with the result that it was about 3 degrees in altitude at sunrise. However, the tail would have been streaming out diagonally across the whole sky. At that time the coma had an apparent magnitude of, at the very least, -11.7.78 When we take into account that the comet was so close to the Earth-Sun line (the “phase angle” of the nucleus was 174 degrees!), we have to boost the brightness of the sunward side of the coma by 7.5 magnitudes (to an effective apparent magnitude of -19.2)!79 (Again, recall that the full Moon’s apparent magnitude is -12.6 and that of the Sun is -26.7.) At least part of the back (upper) section of the large coma would have been visible before sunrise, as would the tail. The baby was, as it were, being rescued by the Sun. It was obvious that this was the last chapter of the nativity narrative in the predawn eastern sky. The coma was heliacally setting. The serpentine dragon had failed to devour the newborn child.
During the 22nd, the comet moved from the east side of the Sun to the west.
That evening at sunset, the nucleus was at 4 degrees altitude. The comet was now heliacally rising in the western sky. Part of the large coma could be seen over the western horizon for a short time after sunset, as could the tail, which streamed up at a slight angle (a slight right tilt), through the constellation Draco, and all the way to and beyond the far horizon. It must have looked like a gigantic neon sign suspended in the sky, directing the Magi to Judea to worship the baby Messiah. The Sun rose before the last section of the tail had set.
On the morning of October 23, the coma (the nucleus having descended 12 degrees in 24 hours to the point that it was the other side of the Sun) certainly did not appear in the eastern sky before dawn. The comet had moved 26 degrees in the space of 3 days! It was now between Libra and Ophiuchus. After impressing observers with its stability within Virgo’s belly from September 30 to October 14, the coma had amazed them with its large leaps from October 20 to 23. This was due to the fact that the comet was getting very close to Earth80 as it prepared to move in between the Sun and Earth. The Earth had already gone under the overpass 3 days before October 23, continuing on its counterclockwise orbit; in 6 days, the comet itself would zip across the overpass on its way out of the inner solar system (fig. 10.30).
FIG. 10.30 October 23, 6 BC: the Christ Comet is heading toward the “overpass” just after Earth has gone under it. Note that the comet is switching from one side of Earth to the other (cf. fig. 10.28); this is why the focus of the celestial show shifts from the eastern morning sky to the western evening sky. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
The Magi’s Departure
Only when the Magi were exposed to the messianic traditions of the Hebrew Bible were they able to decode fully the multifaceted cometary apparition, most particularly the drama that unfolded in Virgo. This amazing celestial entity was the Messiah’s Star and it was announcing his coming to the earth. The moment of birth had been marked by the full emergence of the coma-baby from Virgo’s belly and also by the awesome sight of the comet as a whole, looking like an iron scepter, stretching from eastern to western horizon. It was clear to the Magi that the birth of the one destined to reign over the world from Jerusalem had taken place.
The Magi had followed this Star from their first observation of it. They had no doubt marveled as it made the constellations come alive. Now it had played the part of the messianic baby in an awe-inspiring drama to mark the occasion of his nativity. They must have felt a strong bond with the comet. They were firmly convinced that ancient oracles concerning the Messiah were now being fulfilled. The comet, they believed, was a divine messenger revealing the divine plan regarding the Jewish Messiah. And they clearly perceived that the comet was in a special way speaking to them and even commissioning them to participate in the grand narrative that was unfolding right then. They were not content merely to know that the divine Messiah had been born to Virgo’s terrestrial counterpart some 550 miles away; t
hey were determined to see the King and worship him.
According to our calculations, the baby was born before dawn on October 20, 6 BC. The celestial nativity show in the eastern sky was over on October 22, 6 BC. This conclusion would have been confirmed on the morning of October 23. One may presume that, in this period, the Magi made their final preparations to travel to Judea by camel caravan in order to worship the newborn messianic King.81 Having made their travel preparations, the Magi must have got on their way to Judea quickly, probably departing Babylon sometime during October 23–25. That is when the comet began to behave in a way that could have been interpreted by the Magi as a celestial prompt or usher.
By the time the Magi arrived in Judea, they had secured gifts for the Messiah—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Whether they purchased them in Babylon or en route, these gifts clearly show the influence of the book of Isaiah, which is hardly surprising, since Isaiah 7–12 had been the main key that unlocked the meaning of Virgo’s pregnancy and delivery. In choosing gold and frankincense, they were consciously bringing to the Messiah at his birth what the prophet had prophesied the Gentiles would bring him during his reign (Isaiah 60). In selecting myrrh, they may well have been acknowledging that the Messiah had been born to suffer and die and be buried, bearing the sins of many so that he might win a people for himself who might reign with him (Isaiah 53).
Westward Leading
The comet was very close to Earth at this time, and getting closer. Because Earth had crossed the orbital interchange prior to the comet, the focus of the cometary drama had, for human observers, shifted to the western sky. This glorious apparition in the western sky, and later the southern and western sky, continued for the whole of the Magi’s journey.
With surprising haste, the comet appeared to advance across Ophiuchus, upper Sagittarius, Capricornus’s head, and Aquarius before making it back to its home under the western fish in Pisces by November 3.82 Then over the next weeks it made its way to under that fish’s tail and the ribbon connected to it, where it was when the comet stood over the house where Jesus was, one night between November 23/24 and November 30/December 1, 6 BC (see fig. 10.31). Since it was in that vicinity of the sky that the comet had first appeared, this might well have seemed a very suitable climax, especially since Saturn and Jupiter were still nearby.
FIG. 10.31 The course of the Christ Comet across the constellations from October 23 to November 30, 6 BC. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl, using constellation illustrations from Bloxam, Urania’s Mirror (images credit: oldbookart.com).
This description of the comet’s movements after it switched to the western sky makes what the comet did at that time sound very ordinary. In truth it was anything but. For the whole time leading up to the point when the comet stood over one particular house in Bethlehem, it sported a long tail that was shortening. On October 23 the tail stretched across the entire dome of the sky. From that point on, it got smaller, initially in steep drops (by October 29 it had halved in length) and then more slowly. The length of the tail was actually a general measure of the progress that the Magi were making on their journey—the closer they got to Judea, the shorter the tail became. This may well have been a great encouragement to the Magi as they traveled westward. By November 23–30 the comet would have been about 33–38 degrees in length, considerably shorter than at its peaks, but still an impressive sight by any normal standard.
The comet’s tail may have played important roles in the cometary apparition up to this point. It had possibly been the water being poured from Aquarius’s water jug. It had probably formed the shaft and fletching of the Archer’s Scorpion-slaying arrow. It may have looked like the tube of a magnificent trumpet announcing the Feast of Trumpets. And it had transformed the comet into the Messiah’s long iron scepter to mark the Messiah’s birth. Now, it turned the long-tailed comet into a majestic usher, guiding the Magi all the way to Judea, and more particularly to Bethlehem, and then directing them to their goal—the baby whose part the comet coma had played within Virgo.83
Having shifted to the evening sky, where was the comet’s coma in the wake of sunset? For the first couple of weeks, the comet was migrating from the west to the southeast. On October 23 the Star was in the west-southwest. By October 25 it was in the southwest. By October 27 it was seen in the south. By the 29th the comet was in the south-southeast at sunset. From that point it steadily moved toward the southeast, getting there around November 9. Thereafter its movement within the celestial dome slowed to such an extent that it was less than the daily rotation of the sky, and so the comet appeared to edge slightly back the way it had come.84 From November 9 to 23, even as it was advancing across the belly of the western fish of Pisces, it gave up about 5½ degrees of the progress it had made with respect to its compass position (its “azimuth”).85 By November 30 it had given up another 5½ degrees. Nevertheless, when the Magi were on the last stage of their journey to the Messiah’s home in Bethlehem, one night between November 23 and 30, the comet was appearing in the south-southeast at sunset.
Of course, when the astrologers looked to their left as they traveled westward from their homeland toward Judea, they were looking southward. During the early days of their journey, when the comet (i.e., the coma) was quickly moving to the south, the Magi may have felt like they were catching up with it. When the comet then started off its nightly journeys from a position alongside or slightly behind them, so to speak, which it did for most of their journey, it was naturally a great encouragement to them that they had already made good progress and should keep going on their extraordinary pilgrimage.
How did the comet’s altitude change in the weeks after it shifted to the western evening sky? At sunset on October 23, viewed from Babylon, the altitude of the comet nucleus had been 12 degrees at sunset. Every sunset up until October 28 saw the comet move to a higher altitude, climaxing at just over 40 degrees, halfway up to the zenith. Thereafter it descended very slightly, bottoming out at around 38½ degrees altitude on November 4. After that, it again began ascending to a higher altitude until the end of November and beyond. On November 23–25 and 29–30 (calculating from Jerusalem) the nucleus would have been about 44–45 degrees and 46–46½ degrees respectively in altitude at sunset.
How did the comet tail’s orientation change over the days and weeks? To use a crude analogy, in the weeks after October 22 the comet’s orientation in the aftermath of each sunset was like a giant left-side (from the driver’s perspective) windshield wiper sweeping from right to left that snapped off its pivot and went hurtling up into the air to the left and into the distance, even as it sought to complete the arc of its sweep. This was due to the fact that the comet in outer space was passing Earth and moving away from and indeed, so to speak, “behind” it.
Obviously, the higher up (altitude) and further south/southeast (azimuth) the comet was at sunset, the longer it took for the comet to set. On October 23 the comet (nucleus) started to set about 45 minutes later than it had on the 22nd. Each night thereafter until the night of the 26th/27th the comet set roughly an hour later. Over the following nights the gap between sunset and the comet’s setting continued to increase, although the increase steadily became less impressive. The gap peaked on November 9/10, decreasing thereafter, albeit to an insignificant extent.
What did the comet look like as it moved across the heavens each night?
To employ an imperfect analogy, the comet was like a javelin. At sunset on October 23 it was as though the javelin were being thrust from close range into the ground in the west in front of the Magi. Over the following days it was as though the javelin were being thrown from ever greater distances to the left, each time landing ahead of them. After the first week, when the comet was in the southern-southeastern sky, it would have seemed that the javelin was being hurled upwards from a position left of the Magi and moving across the sky in an arc until it “landed” pointing downwards in front of them. On October 23 the javelin hit the ground at a 60-degree angle. The f
ollowing evening it struck the earth at an approximately 55-degree angle. Thereafter the angle increased until, on November 23/24 and November 30/December 1, it was landing at an 80-degree angle.
To appreciate what the comet was doing each evening and night from about a week into their trip, when the comet was appearing at sunset in the southern sky, it may perhaps help to imagine a massive, transparent, hollow, rainbow-shaped arch. The bases of the arch remain on the ground while the arch is being hoisted up by its “keystone” until it is upright (the arch represents the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the sky). Now imagine that, each night, a streamer (representing the tailed comet) is being launched inside the transparent arched tube while the arch is being raised. The streamer is launched from about halfway along the arch when the arch has been raised up to a 45-degree angle (this represents the comet at sunset). Then the streamer steadily makes its way to the end of the arch, reaching it when the arch is almost upright (this represents the setting of the comet). You are standing between the bases of the arch. As the streamer moves along the rising arch, its whole orientation seems to you to change from being almost horizontal to being almost vertical. This is just like the comet along the ecliptic. Since the comet was basically parallel to and right beside the ecliptic, its orientation was basically the same as that of the ecliptic. The ecliptic arc was steadily and increasingly rising up to a near-vertical position as the hours rolled by each night. As it did so, the stars and constellations—including, of course, those along the ecliptic, together with the comet—followed their daily westward course. The result was that the straight, long-tailed comet’s whole orientation appeared to change dramatically over the course of each night from the point of its appearance after sunset until its setting.
