[jawbone3]

Astronomy now is a science, but historically there wasn't any distinction and much astronometry (measurements of the sky) was done to increase the accuracy of the predictions.

It could well be they are doing epicycles caculations to determine stellar positions etc

[msla]

Right: Astronomy is astrology which advanced beyond the pre-scientific mindset, and made progress, as opposed to stagnating. We can see similar progressions in the medical world, and we can see that one thing holds true: The scientific version of the field became useful to society as a whole, whereas the non-scientific one remains only useful to the practitioners, and then only to the extent they charge for their services.