It was a mild joke as planetary alignment does play a part in Vedic Astrology.
Astrology indeed had a high place in ancient India and significantly influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy. 5th/6th century mathematician Aryabhatta was also an astronomer as well as an astrologer. He even devised his own numerical encoding, which is far more compact than the Katyapadi system but not as amenable to writing numbers poetically.
That's not my opinion. That's the general sentiment of HN as judged by the negative reactions I've gotten over the years as someone who once studied astrology in earnest and dares to occasionally comment on it.
It's not okay to think they influence events here on earth (like tides, winds, moods) through "invisible forces" (like gravity).