“... R. Joshua argues that the Pleiades originally set at daybreak in the spring (hence their name), but that they were made to rise at daybreak (which they have done ever since) and two stars were removed thereby 'unplugging' a hole from which the floodwaters came; on the other hand, R. Eliezer argues that the original heliacal rising of the Pleiades in the autumn was changed to heliacal rising in early spring, now setting in the fall. Their arguments accept a causal association of Pleiades and rain: for both, the 'change in the work of the creation' involved reversing the seasons of heliacal risings and settings, as well as reversing the causal association from setting/dry season to rising/dry season. Understood in this way, there is no longer any confusion in the text. ...”

“... The specific tale of Asterah may have developed from more “scientific” speculations about the Pleiades and the Flood, as found in b.Rosh Ha-shanah 11b–12a; notably, this source evinces the cultivation of both calendrical and chronographical astronomy among Rabbinic Jews in late antique Mesopotamia, as well as their familiarity with the views on such matters current among their non-Jewish counterparts (consistent with the element of intercultural exchange suggested by the very name “Asterah”). [...] The stress on two stars being removed from heaven to cause the Flood might help to explain the consistent focus on two fallen angels in Jewish traditions about fallen angels ...”