During the fall semester of 1992 I ran across an article in Omni magazine. The article was printed in the December issue of 1989. It was called "Dr. Zodiac" and the author was Dava Sobel. The article was about a theory that was developed by Percy Seymour, who was at that time, and possibly still is, principal lecturer in astronomy at the Plymouth Polytechnic Institute in southwest England. In the article it was mentioned, almost as a side note, that the "star" of Bethlehem really wasn't a star at all, but a rare close alignment of Jupiter with Saturn in the constellation Pisces, rising just after sunset. (pg. 66)

Not too much later I discarded the magazine. Some time after that I remembered the article and attempted to find it again. My memory had somehow convinced me that the date of the "star's" next sighting was in this article. It took me about five years and a whole lot of searching to find the article once again. When I did find it I was disappointed to find that the date of the "star's" next appearance was not mentioned.

In my quest I ran across other articles in other magazines that spoke of the star of Bethlehem. In these other article's the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces was mentioned, but it was not the only explanation for the phenomenon. I don't remember the location of these other articles and nothing sticks out in my mind to make me think that the "star's" next appearance date was mentioned in any of them.

I am a relatively stubborn person and I kept looking for the answer to my question. Finally I discovered an article in "Natural History's" December, 1994 issue. The title of the article is "The Solstice and a Star in the East". Again, there were several other explanations, but this time another item of fact stuck out in my mind. Apparently there is to be a conjunction of three planets, namely Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, in April of 2000 (pg. 76). I understand that the last time this conjunction took place was approximately 800 years ago. Naturally I anticipated that the conjunction would be in Pisces, but the article did not specify the sign that this phenomenon would take place in.

Since that time I have been looking for an ephemeris that would tell me the position of the planets for the year 2000 and beyond. I have had quite a search and have just recently given up on the idea of being able to purchase an ephemeris previous to the celestial event. Fortunately I did discover that there are web sites that have that data, and also the information can be found in an almanac. I have since had another suprise; the conjunction will not take place in Pisces at all, but in Aries the sign just after Pisces. I think it is interesting that the event will take place in the first sign of the zodiac.