Bright Lights in our Western Sky

Tonight when we neared our house I saw two really bright lights in the western sky. They were so bright that Al and I thought they were airplanes. But they were't. They are the planets Venus and Jupiter. They will appear to come together tomorrow on the 12th of March. Here is a link that tells about them: http://oregonsky.org/8201.html

Am I remembering correctly that in the movie the Nativity that there were three stars coming together; two of them being Venus and Jupiter?

After further exploration here is a portion of an article I found. Apparently from this article it is exceptionally rare for Jupiter and Venus to appear to converge.

In September of 3 B.C., Jupiter came into conjunction with Regulus, the star of kingship, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. Leo was the constellation of kings, and it was associated with the Lion of Judah. Just a month earlier, Jupiter and Venus had almost seemed to touch each other in another close conjunction "in the east" (http://www.btinternet.com/~prgreetham/Wisemen/theory2.html). Then the conjunction between Jupiter and Regulus was repeated in February and May of 2 B.C.

Finally, on June 17, 2 B.C., Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest objects in the night sky except for the moon, came so close that their disks appeared to touch. This exceptionally rare event could not have been missed by observers such as the Wise Men.  Here is a link to the whole article

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/1203.html

Sheri