Study of the stars has until recently been practical knowledge: "Good for learning about the seasons, how to navigate, keep time, and so on", according to one of Socrates' brighter lights [8]. This book emphasizes the "astral mythology" drawn from the primal world of skywatching to show its historical roots. Every culture with its astronomers. The poet-farmer Hesiod suggests, "When you notice the daughters of Atlas, the Pleiades, rising, start on your reaping, and on your sowing when they are setting." [20] He understood them as harbingers of rain, the weeping daughters.

The earliest notational record of celestial events is a 32,000 BC carved eagle bone depicting the cycles of the moon, found in the Dordogne Valley (France).

Excellent chapters on the contributions of astronomers all over the planet. Especially good with the Arabians, who have given us the nomenclature used by English speakers [67]. Most of the constellations are old Arabic inventions [64, 68], although ironically, much of the astrology, the astrolabe (invented by Greeks), and the astral mathmetics were suppressed by Mohammad [69].