Preface
For more than 2,000 years after the time of Hipparchus and Plato, astronomy was beset by myth and superstition and at best was merely a descriptive science. Inevitably, it failed to provide any real understanding of the nature of the universe. Even as recently as the mid-sixteenth century, the basic belief that the Earth was the centre of all creation, with the Sun, Moon, planets and stars revolving around it at various distances, remained unchallenged and to have suggested otherwise would have branded one as a heretic. Not until Man's true place in the universe was recognized and accepted did astronomy begin to advance out of the Dark Ages and take its rightful place among the other sciences.
Most astronomers would argue that it is ...
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