Then that Michael Keaton flick came along.
I drew my opinion from reading Pierre Boulle’s Planet Of The Apes, back when I was a teenager. I was confounded by the term, so I looked it up. That must have been right around the time when the first movie came out. I like the Beetle Juice pronunciation, sort of, but old habits die hard.
Many, many years ago I heard an astronomy guy pronounce it as "bā'tle guise". As in "fatal mice".
And, yes, astronomy guy is an official title.