1708 - 1808 Swarms of Stars on a Three-Dimensional Stage

Abstract

Observing everything that appeared in the eyepiece of the telescope at random – that pretty much typified astronomy in the first half of the seventeenth century. No wonder: everything was new, and new discoveries were there for the picking; astronomers were like children in a newly opened candy shop. But in the eighteenth century, this haphazard method slowly made way for a more systematic approach that ultimately led to important new insights into the nature of the universe.