Biblical Signs in the Sky? September 23, 2017
January 25, 2017 Christopher M. Graney
One day last fall I was working in my office when my desk phone rang. It was a reader of The Catholic Astronomer, calling me with a question. He asked why the Vatican Observatory blog was full of discussion on black holes or whatnot, when there was something much more momentous to talk about.
It turns out that the momentous thing to which my caller was referring was an arrangement of celestial bodies that will occur this year (2017) on September 23. On that date, according to various Internet sources, the heavens themselves will be a tableau of Revelation 12:
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.… She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
On September 23, 2017 the sun will be in the zodiac constellation Virgo—“a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon will be at the feet of Virgo—“with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), will be at the head of Virgo—“on her head a crown of twelve stars”. The planet Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo, and as the weeks pass after September 23 Jupiter will exit Virgo to the east, past her feet, so to speak—“She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, the “king” of the planets, so to speak—“She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”. Must this not be a sign of something momentous, like the Internet sources say?
Results of a Google image search for September 23, 2017 and Revelation 12. Note that this and all images in this post can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Now, I know that the readers of this blog are diverse. People with interest in astronomy are a diverse group! And you all will have diverse reactions to this question. Some of you are probably saying right now, “what a bunch of nonsense!” Others of you may be thinking that my caller had a good point, and you would like to learn more. Fortunately, I am a community college professor! Community college people are the ‘A-Team’ of the academic world (as in B.A., Hannibal, and the crew from the T.V. show and the movie—who are tougher than anyone else and able to save the day using duct tape, PVC pipe, and a butane lighter). We thrive on diversity! No question phases us! We know that there are a lot of smart people out there who have not had much formal education in a topic like astronomy, and that interest in questions like this reflects a basic interest in astronomy combined with interest in religion and scripture. My caller was familiar with the Stellarium sky software. He could call up the skies of September 23, 2017 on Stellarium and see for himself that this celestial arrangement was a real thing. His was a reasonable question. Scientists need to be able to answer questions people have like this one, without treating the questions as nonsense, because the questions will not go away just because they are dismissed. And thus before long I was having a nice conversation with the caller, and I ended up telling him I would look into his question, and write a post on this topic. But I said it was unlikely to be the post he was looking for. He was OK with that.
And so, Mr. Caller:
The constellation Virgo on September 23, 2017, according to the Stellarium sky software. The moon’s size is exaggerated for visibility.
Green arrows show the “nine” stars of Leo. Blue arrows show the planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Red arrow is Jupiter. Violet arrow is the moon (shown enlarged). The sun is at Virgo’s shoulder.
First, in one year, thanks to the Earth’s annual orbit, the sun travels the entirety of the ecliptic, and thus passes through every one of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. The sun is in Virgo every September. Second, in one month the moon goes through its cycle of phases, and travels the entirety of the ecliptic, and thus passes through every constellation of the zodiac—all owed to the period of the moon’s orbit being one month. Therefore there is always a day or two every year when the sun is in Virgo and the moon is just to the east of Virgo (just past the “feet”). So, the celestial “woman clothed with the sun with the moon at her feet” is as common in September as is the U.S.’s Labor Day.
But what of the crown of twelve “stars,” comprised of three planets and the nine stars of Leo? The response to this question is another question—why nine stars in Leo? There are many more than nine stars in Leo. Those nine are just brighter ones that are often depicted as comprising the general outline or shape of the constellation. But in fact there are scads of stars in Leo and surrounding the “head” of Virgo.
There are many more than nine stars in the constellation Leo.
And not all depictions of Leo show those nine as its outline. Some show the outline of Leo as consisting of ten stars, for example. That would give Virgo a crown of thirteen stars here!