The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View

A very complete debunking of the attempts to rationalize this myth from the Gospel of Matthew as any sort of astronomical phenomenon.
On the surface, this is fairly simple because the “star” described in Matthew does not remotely behave the way any astronomical body would behave. Adair goes through in detail all of the “explanations” that have been proposed over the years (e.g., nova, supernova, meteors, meteorites, planetary conjunctions, eclipses, occultations, etc.) and systematically notes how each of these phenomena differ markedly from what is purported. He also shows what we know historically about the world astronomy of the era is good enough so that the fact that such a singular astromical display is not mentioned in any records from the time is very suspicious.
Finally, he does something which I have not seen done by other authors on the subject: he looks at whether it is possible that what is being described is an astrological event rather than a physical event. Delving into the astrological systems of the time in the region, he shows that such an interpretation is even more problematic.
The five stars is for the completeness of the exposition. While Adair tries to keep things simple and give a popular expostion on the subject, the nature of the argument is such that not every reader is going to find this to be much of a page-turner. But, if you've ever sat through one of those 50 minute planetarium shows around Christmastime and wanted to know from someone who isn't trying to sell you a ticket what the real story is, this might be a worthwhile read for you.