The Origins of Modern Science From Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution

Disregard, for the moment, all you have been taught and consider the following question, relying only on what you have actually observed: when you look up at the sky, what do you see? The answer is not as straightforward as one might expect.

You may start by answering: ‘it depends.’ During the day, we see the Sun. During the night, we see the stars. Most of us live in cities, so we don’t see many of them, but it only takes a short ride out of town and a bright, moonless night to observe the sky as the ancients did: full of literally countless stars. The Moon is a bit of a mystery: although it usually appears during the night, we have all, on occasion, seen it by day.