14.6: Galileo Galilei, First to See the Milky Way Galaxy
Galileo was the first to see the Milky Way Galaxy in 1610 as individual stars through the telescope. Instead of seeing a cloud, he saw countless stars through his simple telescope. In this book, the first published work of observations made through a telescope, Galileo first noted the nature of the Milky Way Galaxy as seen through his telescope. His comments about the Milky Way stars included that the “congeries of innumerable stars grouped together in clusters too small and distant to be resolved into individual stars by the naked eye. ”
Here, you see a vintage picture of title page of Sidereus nuncius (Starry Messenger) 1610, by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).