Review: Celestial smoke and mirrors

IN THE 19th century, astronomers were convinced that Venus sported its own version of our snow-capped Himalayas, that the moon was circled by its own set of mini-moons, and that the newly discovered Neptune boasted a ring system much like Saturn’s. There were even claims by competent observers that when the moon sailed in front of a star in the night sky, the star would sometimes jump in front of the moon, hover there for a while, and then jump back behind it. Read Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and you will see this peculiar…