The entire story was written centuries later and the roman history which
usually painfully recorded every detail did not even mention anything
special "the time when Quirinus was Govenor of Syria", so the whole thing
might have been a hoax right from the start.

I don't really like to start a religious discussion here, noone can really
prove for sure that this (or any other religion) is true. That's why we call
it "believe" not "fact". All we astronomers can do is to provide
astronomical explanations that historicans might set into the right context
to explain the one or the other and leave it to the individuals to find
their peace of mind.

For the astronomical minded, there had been some interesting events in these
years alhough there are some other every decade you like to pick.

>-----Original Message-----
>Haven't you missed out by far the most likely explanation -
>that the entire
>"three wise men and the star" thing was added a couple of
>centuries later to
>"spice up the story" and is purely fictitious? After all, it's only
>mentioned in one of the Gospels - if it really did happen, why
>don't the
>others mention it?
>
>Regards,
>
>Chris
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Chris Marriott, SkyMap Software, UK (chris@...)
>Visit our web site at http://www.skymap.com
>Astronomy software written by astronomers, for astronomers