Astronomy and astrology in Middle-Earth?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

We all know how important the stars were for the Elves and in the whole Middle-Earth, the light in the world, whose part the stars are, was itself a matter of wars uncountable. I would like to explore one thing here: How was it with astronomy and/or astrology in Middle-Earth? Were they cultivated? To what extent? We know the stars in Middle-Earth had somewhat dubious nature: they came from the dew of the Two Trees. But it seems that they were observed - and the question is, was it only for, let's say, entertaining purposes (watching the skies on clear summer nights and making poems), or did some people (Men, Elves...) study their movements (astronomy), eventually make some conclusions based on that (astrology)? Throughout the books, there are some mentions of people observing the skies, like Tar-Palantír, or the stewards of Orthanc:

Originally Posted by TT; Chapter 8: The Road to Isengard

A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars.

The fact that it is said here that these were wise men seems to imply that they did not watch the stars just for their amusement, but for some other purpose connected with their wisdom. That would point to astronomers. To what extent did they cultivate this science? If the stars were nothing more than dew of the Trees, then...? Could the astronomers map their movements, their luminosity, and what else? Distance? Hard to believe. Satellites of planets? Are there any? And what about Sun and Moon - do we have Crater Copernicus or is it just a hole on the surface of Tilion's vessel? What did Tolkien say about this topic? Did his views change at any point?

Astrology, if there was any, is a matter even more controversial. Here on Earth, the origins of astrology are in ancient cultures who saw the skies as some sort of reflection of this world (or: this world as reflection of the heavenly unchanging - or hardly changing - world above) and believed in that the events in this world can be explained and predicted by seeing them in the skies. For example, if Jupiter was the star (resp. planet) that was considered to belong to the nation of X, and let's say suddenly it was eclipsed by another planet, the astrologers could proclaim that the nation of X will be facing serious threat in the near future from the nation to which the other planet belonged (this was a very vague example, but I hope you got the point). The interpretations were of many scales, from the global one (as shown above) to the individual one, where later the fates of individual people were predicted from that. After all, it remains till today. The question is, was this used in Middle-Earth? And if it was, then by whom, for what purposes and how would it work? For example one could find it hard to believe the Elves would support astrology: not the ones who were in Valinor, at least, because they would have known that the fate of Middle-Earth lay in something different. Or did it? It would be easy to say that the stars contained some "coded information" about the fate of Arda that was put inside them, and it will be quite easy to come up with it as a superstition among the less educated Men or even wild Elves and it would be, I think, quite easy to believe it. Again, did Tolkien say anything about that?

I am looking forward to seeing any contributions; if any of you come up with any quotes, either from the books or from the Letters and other stuff, that speak more about this matter, it will be most welcome.