The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer’s View, Mark Kidger, Princeton University Press 1999, £14.50, hardback, 306 pp.

Kidger discusses the literary background to the Star of Bethlehem story and rejects certain candidates, such as Halley’s comet. His conclusions are drawn from a study of astronomical records, particularly the Chinese chronicle, the Ch’ien-han-shu, which records that a new star was sighted near Theta Aquilae in March 5 BC and remained visible for seventy days. Kidger argues that the Magi would have regarded this as confirmation of a messianic birth, coming so soon after the conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.