Early Attempts to Map the Galaxy

(Or, the story of lots of dudes with bad hair.)

1785: William Herschel decides to map the galaxy by counting all the stars he can see in every direction. He finds that we are at the cented of a flattened distribution of stars (a "disk"). Biggest Problem with his method: He assumes he can see to the edge of the galaxy. Other Problems: He assumes all stars are the same brightness, that they're evenly distributed, and doesn't account for gas clouds