William Jansen

First Description of Discrete Stars Composing the Milk Way in Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia (1582)

We note that the first unambiguous description of the Milk Way as being composed of a large number of discrete stars is in Sonnet 31 of Thomas Watson's (d 1592) Hekatompathia (1582), nearly 30 years before Galileo's description. We discuss implications of this early description.