In This Post:
One of the characteristics of the Bethlehem Star is that it was there and then it was not.
This sign of the the star was not a constant companion to the earth. We cannot see it today.
It was not like the sun or the moon which are seen almost everyday, depending on phases of the moon or obscuring clouds.
But the Star of Bethlehem, more correctly entitled, the Star of Jesus, was something that came, and then was no more.
It either moved, or processed from view.
In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally accepted the modern list of 88 constellations, and in 1928 adopted official constellation boundaries that together cover the entire celestial sphere.
Crux is the smallest of those constellations assigned and is located in the southern hemisphere.
Consisting of 5 main stars, it form what one sailor described as a cross. Thus its main stars consist of an asterism called The Southern Cross, contained within the constellation itself. The main star (brightest) os Alpha Crucis, simply called Acrux.
It is the object of some unusual speculation.
Acrux was significant in other cultures – being the 13th brightest star symbolically ‘dying’ by gradually disappearing below the horizon and out of view.
The reappearance of the star in the Southern Hemisphere and its constellation, Crux, began being sighted by some seafaring explorers.
So the star was “rediscovered."
It was known as the "Star of Magellan."
Acrux is hotter and brighter than our own sun, being the 13th brightest in the entire sky. It sits at a distance of 321 light years from the earth.
To the naked eye, Acrux appears as a single star, but it is actually a three, which is interesting since it is the Base or "Foot" star of the Southern Cross.
The main star of which the Southern Cross "stands" is a trinity star.
Being located below the equator, residing below the 27 degree latitude, it is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
It also at -27 degrees (about Brisbane, Australia) the star becomes circumpolar (never setting throughout the year). When you understand the number 27, with its Gospel connection, this number makes even more impact.
Though Acrux can only seen in the Southern skies, that is not how it has always been.
As Crosby, Stills and Nash sang:
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way
There is something that draws people to The Southern Cross.
The Southern Cross was just visible at the latitude where Jerusalem would have seen it, during the crucifixion of Jesus.
It gradually disappeared and became invisible in Israel.
It would not be seen again for almost 1600 years.
The cross witnessed the cross.
Last seen in Jerusalem around AD 33, some understood that this star might have been the Bethlehem Star.
Watch how the Southern cross stood at 30 AD and then disappeared from view during earth's procession.
It is the disappearing star.
The last time that the Southern Cross was seen in Jerusalem, it stood upright over where Jesus would have been crucified. After His crucifixion, the star fell below the horizon.
Though the constellation itself may not complete the Biblical requirement of moving and standing in the sense that an object moves each night in the sky and they appears to stand still (as in retrograde motion), it may have had another implication.
When the Southern Cross appeared in the sky over Jerusalem, it stood upright in the traditional sense, with Acrux, the base at the horizon.
There Acrux "stood" above the horizon.
The last time it would have been seen in this fashion would have been 33 AD.
Though we may never know the exact astronomical reason for the Star that witnessed the birth of Jesus, we do know that the star that witnessed His dying was indeed Acrux.
Next Post: What Does it Mean When the Sun Goes Dark?
Other Posts In This Series:
Main: Blog Main Page
Series: Signs In the Heavens
Content Trademark TM - STORM SHELTER PRESS
contact: stormshelterproductions@gmail.com
コメント