| Sumario: | This article discusses efforts by the astrophysicist Donald Olson to determine the celestial view during historical periods. This research has indicated the map of the sky on the night that Vincent Van Gogh painted "Starry Night," and Edvard Munch painted "Girls on a Pier." Questions about the degree to which such impressionistic painters sought realism in their work are considered. Olson also used his calculations to determine the occurrence of unusual tidal phenomena described in the book "The Canterbury Tales," by Geoffrey Chaucer, and historical accounts of the Battle of Tarawa during the Second World War.
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