Your Highness’s most devoted servant,
Galileo Galilei.
Padua, March 12, 1610.
THE ASTRONOMICAL MESSENGER
Containing and setting forth Observations lately made with the
aid of a newly invented Telescope respecting the Moon’s
Surface, the Milky Way, Nebulous Stars, an
innumerable multitude of Fixed Stars, and
also respecting Four Planets never before
seen, which have been named
THE COSMIAN STARS.[3]
IN the present small treatise I set forth some matters of great interest for all observers of natural phenomena to look at and consider. They are of great Introduction.interest, I think, first, from their intrinsic excellence; secondly, from their absolute novelty; and lastly, also on account of the instrument by the aid of which they have been presented to my apprehension.
The number of the Fixed Stars which observers have been able to see without artificial powers of sight up to this day can be counted. It is therefore decidedly a great feat to add to their number, and to set distinctly before the eyes other stars in myriads, which have never been seen before, and which surpass the old, previously known, stars in number more than ten times.