equaled or exceeded that of the planet Venus at her brightest, a
statement which will be appreciated at its full value by anyone who
has ever watched Venus when she plays her dazzling rôle of ``Evening
Star,'' flaring like an arc light in the sunset sky. It even became so
brilliant as to be visible in full daylight, since, its position being
circumpolar, it never set in the latitude of Northern Europe. Finally
it began to fade, turning red as it did so, and in March, 1574, it
disappeared from Tycho's searching gaze, and has never been seen again
from that day to this. None of the astronomers of the time could make
anything of it. They had not yet as many bases of speculation as we
possess today.

Tycho's star has achieved a romantic reputation by being fancifully
identified with the ``Star of Bethlehem,'' said to have led the
wondering Magi from their eastern deserts to the cradle-manger of the
Savior in Palestine. Many attempts have been made to connect this
traditional ``star'' with some known phenomenon of the heavens, and
none seems more idle than this. Yet it persistently survives, and no
astronomer is free from eager questions about it addressed by people
whose imagination has been excited by the legend. It is only necessary
to say that the supposition of a connection between the phenomenon of
the Magi and Tycho's star is without any scientific foundation. It was
originally based on an unwarranted assumption that the star of Tycho
was a variable of long period, appearing once every three hundred and
fifteen years, or thereabout. If that were true there would have been
an apparition somewhere near the traditional date of the birth of
Christ, a date which is itself uncertain. But even the data on which
the assumption was based are inconsistent with the theory. Certain
monkish records speak of something wonderful appearing in the sky in
the years 1264 and 945, and these were taken to have been outbursts of