Heliacal Phenomena is a parallel to the author’s Eclipses, being another astronomical introduction for Humanists. The aim is that of providing Humanists with a general overview on the importance of heliacal phenomena from the standpoints of history, literature, astronomy. The book is an invitation for students and scholars to consider this subject, as it has been incredibly useful to science, agriculture, people in several ways. The book covers documents dating back to the ancient texts from Babylon, China, Greece, Rome or the Academies and Scientists, up until the present time. That is, from the epochs in which stars were gods, to the modern applications of high speed astronomical photometry. Heliacal Phenomena is useful as a compendium of information, from which to develop further studies.
Salvo De Meis is a well-known scholar in the field of celestial mechanics and historical astronomy. He is the author of many articles and books, among which Eclipses, Astronomical Amusements (papers in honor of J. Meeus, edited with F. Bònoli and A. Panaino), Babylonian Eclipse Observations (with P.J. Huber) and the yearly Almanacco astronomico e nautico (with J. Meeus, now discontinued) which guided so many generations of astronomers and amateurs in the ever-changing spectacle of the sky. The International Astronomical Union named the asteroid 5589 De Meis after him