A Christmas Star

Hopefully we're all enjoying the full weight of the Advent season by now. The candles, the colder weather, the sense of anticipation, it's all there! I'm sure you've seen numerous posts about the true meaning of Advent and how we shouldn't just count down the days until Christmas, so I won't belabor that point further.

Nope, not today. Today, I want to draw your attention to something that hasn't happened since 1226. Yes, for those of you keeping score, that's back during the Middle Ages. I'm talking, of course, about the Christmas Star.

This year, for the first time since the Middle Ages, Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a rare conjunction, causing them to appear as a "double planet" in our night sky. A conjunction is essentially when two celestial bodies appear back-to-back, or extremely close together, when viewed from Earth.