Ascension of Christ

[lumberjim]

i read a sci fi story once that tied into the star of bethlehem. the main character was the priest on a space ship that discovered a planet/vault near a dead star. the vault was a treasure trove of a dead civilization's art, science, philosophy, etc.....a truly admirable and beautiful people that knew their time was up, and went to the trouble of creating this planet sized time capsule so that their acheivements would not be lost.

The twist was that the star that went supernova and destroyed this beautiful civilization was the one seen to herald the birth of Christ on Earth.

Makes you think that they would be able to figure out the date of his birth based on evidence of some celestial event that would have been observed on earth around that time.