Jupiter and Saturn have been appearing close together in the sky all summer, and they are continuing to reduce their distance.
The minimum distance will be on 21 December, the same day as the winter solstice: the distance between the two planets will be only 6'6.6 ″ (one tenth of the apparent diameter of the Moon): a very rare circumstance in past centuries, while in the future we will have similar events in 2080, 2417, 2874 (Christmas night…).
That day we will see Jupiter and Saturn from Italy as a single very bright star towards the West, shortly after sunset.
Basically:
-the "Star" would have been a planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, characterized by being "triple" (that is, the planets approach and move away three times within 7 months, never separating more than 3 ° from each other)
-this conjunction took place from May to December 7 BC, which corresponds to one of the most probable dates of the birth of Christ
-the conjunction was visible towards the East, just before dawn
-the conjunction occurred in the constellation of Pisces, the constellation in which the Sun passed at the time during the spring equinox
-for the occurrence of a similar situation it is necessary to go back to 4038 BC.
-during the unfolding of the triple conjunction, due to the combined motion of the Earth, the two planets "stopped" in the sky (18/07) and traveled a stretch of their orbit in the opposite direction (retrograde: from East to West) up to 13/11, then resuming moving in a direct motion (from West to East)
BTW…Are there still Magi able to tell us where the Star is pointing?