Ben Bova: Star search ... How heavens have affected affairs on
Earth  I became interested in astronomy when I was 11 years old,
on my first visit to a planetarium. When they turned out all the
lights and flashed the stars onto that domed ceiling, I was
hooked for life.  Astronomy is not only beautiful and exciting,
it’s been crucially important to our existence. It even led to
the development of democracy.  Our ancestors were watching the
night sky during the ice age. Paleontologists have discovered a
fossilized bone some 30,000 years old that has the phases of the
moon carved into it.  About 20,000 years later, when they
invented agriculture, astronomy became a matter of life and
death. Farming societies need to know when to plant their crops.
If you plant at the wrong time of year and your crops don’t
grow, you starve.  In ancient Egypt, the Nile River’s annual
flood brought fresh, fertile silt to the parched land. It was
vital to know when the Nile would rise. Stargazers determined
that when the bright sta