On Astrology

To the Editors of The Crimson:

It isn't exactly a catastrophic error, but it can be somewhat annoying to students of the history and philosophy of science.

The lead graph of a recent Crimson article described a proposed facility to take advantage of the upcoming space telescope, and stated that the new facility should make Harvard a center for "astrological study.

A big book in Cabot library defines astrology as the "divination that treats of the supposed influences of the stars upon human affairs and of foretelling terrestrial events by their positions and aspects." The study of astrology is considered by many to be some what unscientific, and has not to the best of my knowledge been stated for any significant funding by Harvard.

That same big book defines astrollemy as the science that treats of the celestial bodies, of their positions, magnitudes, motions, distances, constitution, physical condition, mutual relations, history, and destiny." Now although astrologers and astronomers have throughout the centuries been gathering similar types of date, it is somewhat sage to say that they have done so for somewhat different reasons. And while the astronomers using the space telescope will hardly reject any astronomical knowledge of the influences of the stars on human affairs and terrestrial events some interesting idea circulating among astronomers at the present time states that a companion star to the Sun indirectly causes mass extinctions on this planet every '26 million years and thus has some potential for affecting human affairs, it is safe to say that their methods are somewhat different than those of the astrologers.

Based on the rest of the Crimson article. I'm grille sure that "astrological" was meant to be "astronomical," and humbly submit that proposed correction.

Incidentally, the last time I saw this all-too-common error in print was in 1981 when People magazine picked Carl Sagan as one of the ten sexiest men of the year, and described him as one of America's "leading astrologers," Shame. Timothy Moy '85