NavList:

   

Reply

Could this have been a historical navigation exercise?

Just to inform you at the beginning: I don't know well the bible and
even less navigation. This Web-page here helped me now a bit to catch
up on the first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi

There have been a lot of speculation in the past of what the star of
Bethlehem might have been, such like a comet or a special
constellation of some planets. There is now a new(?) theory. After
studying various texts a person came to the conclusion that this star
has likely been Venus in the morning-sky at the moment when it changed
its movement from retrograde to normal. According to his calculations
this moment would have been on September 1st, 2 BC. For those of you
who do know German they can read some of his explanations here
http://bazonline.ch/wissen/geschichte/Der-Stern-von-Bethlehem-war-die-Venus/story/29467985

Now where may come navigation into play? There were the three magi (or
Kings) who found the child by FOLLOWING A STAR. It doesn't seem to be
clear where the three persons came from; it looks however like they
started at distant place(s). I'm just wondering now whether around
this time some particular constellation (Lunar?) existed, which could
have been used to find the area of Bethlehem. Could it be that a
certain occultation may only have been visible in this area which they
possibly may even have been able to calculate beforehand?

I don't know if the present positional astronomy programs would have
sufficient accuracy for investigating the possible navigational help
the magi may have had about 2000 years ago. In case the accuracy would
be sufficient, it should actually be easy to see whether around this
time the location was part of an area where a special constellation
could be seen.

Marcel

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc
To post, email NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

   

Reply