Regarding your additional text, David. I am convinced that our ancestors would never have acquired such a reflected self-image if they had not started to observe the stars. No matter where in the world, the stars have always moved and intellectually stimulated people...even if they did not yet know that stars are suns. But think of all the calendars, constellations, the observation that some objects "wander" (planets) and all others do not. In a "dark" age we as mankind would not have been so busy. Thank God our ancestors were not so distracted by electric light, etc. They had the time for observations which they passed on over generations. To close the circle, we would never have the motivation and curiosity and thirst for knowledge to build a James Webb telescope today if our ancestors had not observed the stars.
