Astronomy and astrology in Middle-Earth?

[Thinlómien]

If Saruman was not performing astronomy and not necessarily astrology either, what was he doing? Was he looking at the stars of Varda and remembering his time in Valinor with longing? *squeals* Awww, Emo-Saruman!

A bit more seriously, it is indeed a good question what was he doing up there. Like Gwath said, he probably knew a lot of the "scientific facts" about space, so he would not need to bother with that. And as to astronomy, can you really picture Saruman at his towers, musing: "So, Éowyn is a Virgo... hmmm... looking at the postion of Mercury, it looks like she'll develop a fatal crush on a Mysterious Stranger... "?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

If Saruman was not performing astronomy and not necessarily astrology either, what was he doing? Was he looking at the stars of Varda and remembering his time in Valinor with longing? *squeals* Awww, Emo-Saruman!

Well, I would not say this is impossible - and I would like to think that at least at the beginning he was like this. For it is said (about all the Istari, that is even Saruman):

Originally Posted by UT; Istari

...and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly.

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

You might also consider, Legate, whether Saruman would have needed to practice astronomy since he was a Maia, and likely already knew everything he needed to know about the locations, movements, etc. of the stars (he was a bit of a knowledge junkie).

But is it necessary that he was not practising astronomy? I also can't think what good it will do to him for his warfare in the later days (except maybe: "Ha ha ha, if I delay the war long enough, this huge asteroid will surely fall on Gondor!"), nevertheless, he was this knowledge-collecting guy (remember he listened for years to Stromo- um, Treebeard for years, and surely lot of it was just some rambling about how trees grow!) as you rightly said, and so he surely could want to obtain some knowledge just for the knowledge itself (cf. Goethe's Faust). Anyway, why would he study it even if he already knew - well, what if he didn't know? I'm referring to this:

Originally Posted by UT; Istari

For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience (...)

(which is interestingly the first part of the sentence I quoted above). You see, they had to learn many things again, so why not astronomy, in such a favourable conditions as Orthanc offered?

[Gwathagor]

Yes, what I meant was if he already was familiar with the stars, he wouldn't have needed to practice astronomy. But you make a good point about the post-incarnation relearning process.