What was the Star directly over the birth place of the Christ Child?
Jupiter’s Retrograde Motion Index Ivor Bulmer-Thomas proposes that the Bethlehem Star was simply Jupiter passing through a stationary point in its trek across the sky. When a planet undergoes retrograde motion, it makes a loop against the stars. The planet appears to be stationary at each end of the loop for about a week to the naked eye. Babylonian astronomers had a keen interest in retrograde motions and the wise men may have been at Bethlehem when Jupiter was at a stationary point. In Bulmer-Thomas’ theory the 7 B.C.E. triple conjunction and near-conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 6 B.C.E. would have alerted the wise men to look for a further sign in the sky. If they followed Jupiter from the time it emerged from behind the sun in May 5 B.C.E., they would
