Book for students: Astronomy for English Majors

“Astronomy for English Majors” is a manual designed to help students majoring in English literature or other Humanities areas learn what they need to know about the sky. What happens there, particularly the motions of heavenly bodies at night, sometimes conveys significant connotations in poetry and creative writing. Many pupils, for example, cannot say if the full moon is ever visible at midday. And some of them reside in the countryside or small towns, where they may frequently see the pure night sky free of city lights. Even those who understand the positions of the moon and sun during the moon's phases have not come across the ancient theory of the celestial spheres, the seven "planets" (which included the sun and moon), and astrological "influence," a set of beliefs that remained influential in literature even after Copernicus and Galileo disproved it. This book is dedicated to them.