This is the abstract to the paper on Academia. Academia is a free and secure online platform. These signs, "in the sun, moon, and stars" were real and the same ones detailed in the Talmud. This belief is as old as the Talmud and maybe goes back to the days of Moses as well as the Jewish Creation blessing of the Sun recited every 28 years.
According to a Jewish tradition from the Book of Genesis, as detailed in the Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 59b, the Sun, Moon, and stars were precisely aligned on the Fourth Day of Creation. Today, during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere, Jews recite a special blessing every twenty-eight years on a Wednesday to honor Creation and thank the Lord for the Sun. Some modern rabbis believe that the recurrence of this rare alignment signifies an opportune time for the arrival of the Messiah. Similarly, in Luke 21:25-28, Jesus instructed His followers to watch for signs in the Sun, Moon, and stars preceding His Second Advent. The next verse, Luke 21:29-31, indicates that these signs will begin in the spring. This could also be applied to the First Advent and should be considered. Around the Nativity on March 22, 5 BCE, a celestial alignment at the March equinox involving the Sun, Moon, and stars occurred, echoing the verse in Berakhot 59b. Evidence from NASA, NOAA, and the modern software Fourmilab, used by the Harvard Math Department, supports a heavenly recurrence akin to the Talmud’s Creation Alignment. This event happened one Passover before Herod died in 4 BCE, a timeframe that most conservative theologians agree on. These celestial signs in the Sun and Moon (a total lunar eclipse and possible Blood Moon) match the only primary source for the Star of Bethlehem: The Chinese observation of a comet (the signs in the stars). Note: the word 'alignment' in the thesis title refers to a chronological order (i.e., Fourth day of Creation in the book of Genesis), not a celestial one (i.e., Planetary Alignments found in Babylonian astrology).
AA