Abstract: For millennia before Galileo (1564–1642), people throughout the world gazed at the starry skies with unaided vision and sought to understand the correlations between celestial and terrestrial phenomena. Multiple systems of astrology were the fruits of their labors, but the modern sci- ence of astronomy remained beyond reach. For centuries, mathematicians sought to understand the movements of celestial bodies in accordance with the dominant worldviews of their times. But even the heliocentric system devised by Copernicus (1473–1543) was widely regarded as simply one more plausible mathematical model, for it was not experimentally better than Ptolemy’s (c. 90–168 c.e.) geocentric model. It was Galileo who introduced advanced technology for observing celestial phenomena, and his empiricism soon triumphed over the rationalism of his predeces- sors. The modern science of astronomy had begun.
