Astronomy before the telescope
With the eye alone, we can see only a few things in the universe beyond Earth:- the Sun
- the Moon
- some of the planets
- a few thousand stars
- the glow of the Milky Way and several nearby galaxies
- shooting stars
- passing comets
Moreover, these few things can be seen only in limited detail.
It was not until 1609, when the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei began observing the Moon, the planets, the Sun and the stars with a telescope, that the discovery of the universe commenced in earnest.