A Genuine Christmas Star Shines On El Paso This Year

The star on the mountain will have a little extra help from above this Christmas.

A celestial event known as "The Christmas Star", and/or "The Star Of Bethlem" (that depends on who you ask) will occur Monday, December 21st.

It's not really a star but a change in the alignment between Jupiter and Saturn and it only happens every 20 years or so. This time though, we get something extra special ... something that has not been seen from Earth in over 800 years.

This variation of the star hasn't happened since 1226, somewhere around the time the Cowboys last won a Superbowl. I'm kidding, settle down.

The Cowboys didn't exist at all back then.

That's not far enough back to be the original Star of Bethlem but, who knows about the one(s) before it?

Here's what's going on according to an article in Forbes:

“Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to be to one another,” said Patrick Hartigan, astronomer at Rice University.

“You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”

December 21st is when we'll have the best view but, you can see it any evening that week, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (night). Look to the southwest sky about 45 minutes after local sunset.

Here in El Paso, officially, the sun will set at 4:32 and it will be completely dark by 6:10.