What do you think the star was? It had to be astrology somehow.
Contrary to popular belief the Wise Men didn't show up at the manger to see the new born Jesus. He was a young child when they found him at home. (Matthew Chapter 2). So it is as if the star didn't show up in the sky until Jesus was born, then they saw the star and took off in search of a baby of all things.
Saturn wasn't discovered until 1610 so forget that one and all others that are further out. They could literally see it in the sky so it could have been Jupiter but there had to be something else to make the event special enough to ride off for weeks to a foreign country. We know that they easily could have died or been killed. They were sure of themselves and what they were seeing. They didn't have enough information to go straight to Bethlehem but the star showed them that they were right once they got to Bethlehem. Then to top things off they had a prophetic dream to go home another route. Amazing.
What are your thoughts? I don't think it was a supernova but who knows. On May 4, 2000 we had Mars, Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter visible in the same area of the sky. That was special but I didn't go in search of a new born king. I don't know what to think but it must have been a special celestial event.
Ironically or not I just found this link on Space.com to a live webcast talking about this very subject. It's tonight December 23 at 8:00 eastern time US
http://www.space.com/35134-star-of-bethlehem-explained-slooh-webcast.html
Several years ago I saw a program called "The Star of Bethlehem" which fascinated me. The guy who taught it was a former lawyer who decided to investigate this star as a real event, not a theoretical one. I don't remember the particulars, but he said something about Regulus conjunct Jupiter in Leo, and Jupiter retrograde, etc. and my astrological ears went up. (He dismisses astrology in his presentation as being off-limits to Christians, but whatever.) Anyway, he used "Starry Night" software to make calculations, and found that the dates typically used were off--once he went back a few years, the sky lit up like a Christmas tree.
I'll talk more later about this. 
This is cool.
What if they saw Saturn in alignment with other visible stars? Saturn wasn't discovered til later but it can still be seen?
This is a really great question, Tam. It seems that for every theory, there is someone who can debunk it ?
He was a young child ??
I don't think so. Shrugs
Nina Bee said
He was a young child ??I don't think so. Shrugs
King James Version
"11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh."