Yet again, just as we speak of "the celestial canopy," so Psalm civ. describes the Lord as He "who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain," and Isaiah gives the image in a fuller form,—"that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." … Here, beyond question, extension, spreading out, is the idea sought to be conveyed, not that of solidity.

One star or constellation of stars would herald by its "heliacal rising" the beginning of spring, another the coming of winter; the time to plough, the time to sow, the time of the rains, would all be indicated by the successive "morning stars" as they appeared. And after an interval of 365 or 366 days the same star would again show itself... So we read in Job, that God led "forth the Mazzaroth in their season." (Maunder 1908)

…the Hebrews did not suppose that it was a new sun that came up from the east each morning, as did Xenophanes and the Epicureans amongst the Greeks. It was the same sun throughout. Nor is there any idea of his hiding himself behind a mysterious mountain during the night. "The sun," the Preacher tells us, "ariseth and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." The Hebrew was quite aware that the earth was unsupported in space, for he knew that the Lord "stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." There was therefore nothing to hinder the sun passing freely under the earth from west to east, and thus making his path, not a mere march onward ending in his dissolution at sunset, but a complete "circuit," as noted by the writer of the nineteenth Psalm.

Our calendar to-day is a purely solar one; our months are twelve in number, but of purely arbitrary length, divorced from all connection with the moon…

A year, that is purely lunar, consists of twelve lunations [new Moon to new Moon], amounting to 354 days…

The Jews used actual lunations for their months, but their year was one depending on the position of the sun, and their calendar was therefore a luni-solar one. But lunations cannot be made to fit in exactly into a solar year—12 lunations are some 11 days short of one year … but an approximation can be made … by taking 7 years in every 19 as years of 13 months each. This thirteenth month is called an intercalary month...

•    July 31, 1063 BCE
•    August 15, 831 BCE    
•    June 15, 763 BCE
•    May 18, 603 BCE
•    May 28, 585 BCE.

The stuff re-entering would look like lots and lots of shooting stars like a glowing layer of material above you of several thousand degrees celsius like being under a griller. (The Advertiser, June 12, 1993 "Collision Course")

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. (Revelation 21:22-23)

On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel, "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O Moon, over the valley of Aijalon."

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Jashar? The sun stopped in mid heaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

…the length of the march made between noon and sunset was equal to an ordinary march taking the whole of a day.

"I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz." So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. (38:8)

The going back of the shadow on the dial … is dependent, not on astronomical, but on meteorological causes. The shadow is not invariably dependent upon the position of the sun, but upon the brightest point of light in the sky. If when the sun nears the western horizon a dark impenetrable cloud covers the orb, the shadow will be cast by the bright silver lining of the cloud, which may be near the zenith, and the shadow will repeat nearly a quarter of the circle. In the present century an instance is recorded by the Canon of Metz Cathedral.

In the case under consideration … the prophet is … directed to foretell, as a sign, a natural phenomenon which was about to occur.
(Quoted in BIBLE STUDY MONTHLY January/February 1995 without giving the full reference)

• Legends of werewolves active at full Moon were often taken seriously until the 19th century.
• The ancient Greek writer Plutarch told of Moon demons that lived in caves.
• German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote that lunar craters were built by Moon creatures.  In 1822 Gruithuisen (another German astronomer) told of discovering a "lunar city." In the 1920’s American astronomer W.H. Pickering suggested insects live on the Moon.

Professor Abian, 68, who has taught at Iowa State for 24 years with stints at Oxford University, suggests we take the nuclear-powered rockets that were stored up during the Cold War and send them to the moon… (The Advertiser, April 27, 1991, p. 6)

There will be an end to sharp temperature differences around the planet and consequently an end to cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes… (Discover, January 1992, p. 68)

They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure,
Throughout all generations.
 In his days [when the Messiah rules] shall the righteous flourish;
And the abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth…
(Psalm 72:5, 7 KJV)

Long-term exposure to UV rays speeds up the development of cataracts—clouding of the lens that can lead to blindness if left untreated. It also increases your risk of pterygium, a growth that starts on the conjunctiva, the membrane covering the white of the eye, and can spread to the cornea… In the short term you could find yourself with "snow blindness" — a painful sunburn on your eye...

Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them… So shall your descendants be. (Genesis 15:5)
I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)

And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping… (Deuteronomy 4:19)

He [God] is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. (Job 9:9)

Under its first leaders astronomy in the Classical age began to advance rapidly, but it soon experienced a deadly blight. Men were not content to observe the heavenly bodies for what they were; they endeavoured to make them the sources of divination. The great school of Alexandria (founded about 300 B.C.), the headquarters of astronomy, became invaded by the spirit of astrology… Thus from the days of Claudius Ptolemy to the end of the Middle Ages the growth of astronomy was arrested…