“Star of Bethlehem” planetarium shows at Saint Vincent College

by Public Relations | December 03, 2025

LATROBE, PA – The Saint Vincent College Angelo J. Taiani Planetarium will host “The Star of Bethlehem” shows on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m.

Dr. Daniel Vanden Berk, associate professor of physics in the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing, will conduct the show alongside senior physics majors Adrianna Battaglia of Murrysville and Andrew Joyce of Newbury, Ohio, who will be serving as student assistants.

The approximately one-hour planetarium show will explore one of the most fascinating details of the first Christmas: “The Star of Bethlehem” that led the Magi to the newborn Jesus.

“For 2,000 years, scholars have debated the identification of the Christmas star,” Vanden Berk said. “Was it a purely supernatural event, or could it have been an astronomical phenomenon? Using the power of the modern planetarium, we will go back in time to see what objects and events in the sky might be consistent with the Biblical account of ‘The Star of Bethlehem.’”

The shows are appropriate for all ages. All shows are free of charge, but seating is limited. For reservations or questions, contact Erin Black at 724-805-2631 or email erin.black@stvincent.edu.

The Angelo J. Taiani Planetarium is located inside the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion on the Saint Vincent College campus.

Colorful nebula in space displaying shades of blue, green, and red among a backdrop of stars. — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — Released Dec. 30, 2009, in the supernova remnant W49B, the Japan-U.S. Suzaku observatory found another fossil fireball. It detected X-rays produced when heavily ionized iron atoms recapture an electron. This view combines infrared images from the ground (red, green) with X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue). Credit: Caltech/SSC/J. Rho and T. Jarrett and NASA/CXC/SSC/J. Keohane et al. File found at commons.wikimedia.org.