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He showed Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar the way to Jesus.

According to the Bible, the three wise men found the child's crib through the Star of Bethlehem.

It is unclear whether this heavenly phenomenon existed or whether it is just symbolism.

A comet, a star explosion that can be seen on Earth or even a special constellation of planets: the latter is at least a more likely possibility and can be seen right on time for Christmas this year.

In the evening sky of December 21st, the shortest day of the year, the two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, merge to our eyes.

In this so-called conjunction, the two planets of the Union of Star Friends come particularly close when viewed from Earth.

The reason: Both are traveling around the sun at different speeds.

The faster Jupiter then overtakes the more distant Saturn.

“This year's overtaking maneuver is something special.

The two planets will almost merge into a common point of light, ”says the chairman of Sternfreunde, Sven Melchert.

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Overtaking occurs every 20 years.

But a similarly close encounter will only take place again in 2080.

And you can't always see the spectacle.

Twenty years ago the giants were not visible in the night sky during conjunction.

And in 2080 the closest convergence will not occur until bright dawn.

"The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21, 2020 is the best that the universe has to offer us for a long time," emphasizes Melchert.

The ring system of Saturn can be seen at 30x magnification

The two planets are currently in the southwestern sky in the evening.

A telescope is not necessary for an observation.

The bright Jupiter will then stand to the left below the ring planet Saturn and with the naked eye one will no longer be able to separate the two from one another.

With binoculars one can then see not only Jupiter but also some of its four large moons.

The ring system of Saturn can also be seen with a magnification of at least 30 times.

However, the weather on the evening of December 21st will thwart a view of the rare spectacle in large parts of Germany.

"It doesn't look so good," says a spokesman for the German Weather Service.

The cloud cover will thicken in the western half.

Fog and clouds prevented a view of the evening sky.

Regionally, however, there are opportunities in the east and south-east.

Even on December 22nd, when the two planets are still close together, the weather doesn't play along.

"You need a lot of luck there."

There was a similar encounter between the two planets at the turn of the ages.

"But that's only one of the possibilities," said Carolin Liefke from the House of Astronomy in Heidelberg about the speculations about the Star of Bethlehem.

Jupiter and Venus would also have had a similar constellation.

Although the star has often been shown with a tail since the Middle Ages, a comet could very likely be excluded.

It was considered a bad luck charm, and that would certainly not have been written down.

A supernova, a star explosion, is also unlikely.

Remnants should have been found there.

“The Gospels were written much later.” Perhaps this is all just symbolism.