On April 16, 2010, after sunset, you can see what Moses saw in the heavens, when God said, "You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you." (HINT: it's something besides the crescent moon!)

About 45 min to an hour or so after sunset on April 16, you should begin to see the visible crescent moon as well as the Pleiades, which should be visible to the naked eye. The Pleiades looks like a "little dipper." You should see the moon about 20 degrees above the horizon and the Pleiades slightly higher above the moon by a couple of degrees, and slightly north of a westerly azimuth. I'm viewing from Apalachicola Florida, so you will have to check the data for your location. Pleiades will be slightly higher than the moon, and it will set after the moon about 2149 hours. Hope you get to see it.

Over the last couple of weeks, I noticed there seemed to be a piece of the calendar puzzle missing. I re-read Genesis 1:14-16:

"God said, 'Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days, and years; and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth;' and that is how it was. God made the two great lights -- the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night -- and the stars" (Gen 1:14-16).

I noticed there was a lot of focus on the sun and the moon, but what about the stars? Scripture clearly says, "...and the stars." But where are the stars in the equation? Sure, Josephus tells us the sun was in Aries at the time of Passover. But what does that mean, and how does it relate to the biblical calendar? And how would we know that without our own personal planetarium?

What I found is exciting to say the least. And its been right there in front of our eyes all along. How have we missed it? Has God kept it hidden from our sight until now?

Using an astronomy program, I looked at the sky during the time of Moses. I used the month of April in 1446 BC, one of the suggested years for the Exodus. I turned off everything in the program that Moses probably would not have seen, such as astrological signs, star labels, etc. When I looked just at the sky, and the new visible crescent moon, there it was just a few degrees from the moon; the Pleiades, the "seven sisters" as they are called.

When I started researching this occurrence, I found it is an annual event in the spring, in the beginning month of the biblical year, when the new crescent moon and the Pleiades are in close proximity. If you Google "crescent moon pleiades" you will easily find web articles for most of the last decade highlighting this event. The use of astronomy programs find that it will happen for the next decade and beyond. It happened in the time of Moses, and it happens to this day. It is another marker in the heavens that God showed Moses for the beginning of the scriptural year. And there are seven of the star cluster that are prominent; imagine that.

As I continued exploring this new found information about the Pleiades, I found another piece of evidence to support the Pleiades theory. The Nebra Sky Disk may be one of the greatest archaeology finds in history. It was discovered quite by accident in 1999 and has depictions on it that confirm the Pleiades is more than likely part of the biblical calendar, in it's relationship with the moon. The disk is estimated to be over 3,600 years old and dates back to the time of Moses. The irony is it was found in Nebra, Germany and has been authenticated to be from that region, not from the Nile region of Egypt.

This annual event occurred almost exactly as depicted on the Nebra Sky Disk on March 20, 2010, but I missed seeing it because I didn't find this connection until a few days later. One of the interpretations of the disk is when the crescent moon and the Pleiades appear in the heavens as they are depicted on the disk, it signals a 13th month is needed. Interestingly, many biblical calendar followers inserted a 13th month this year.

You're not going to find much of anything on the web making this connection between Moses and the Pleiades; at least I haven't. That's why I've attempted to gather as much information as I could to show the connection. You will find information about the Pleiades and the Nebra Sky disk separately, with only allusions to biblical history. Their appears to be little in the way of depiction or history of this connection before the time of Christ. This connecting piece seems to have been very hidden. Together, we need to uncover this treasure and put it in it's proper perspective.

Inquiries have been submitted to the USNO and related astronomers to confirm any aspects of this information and are pending. Rahlf Hansen, an astronomer with The Planetarium of Hamburg, Germany, who is associated with the Nebra Sky Disk project, is currently reviewing the paper I have written. He has confirmed that the crescent moon and the Pleiades in close proximity is an annual event in the spring. In an initial email contact with him, he had these comments;