How did people know stars were stars before 17th century?

[Vivaldi]

Telescope was invented in early 17th century.

So how could people even know stars were stars before 17th century. Can someone explain this to me?

Venus and Jupiter looks like Stars to the naked eye too. However, the brighter than any stars.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Without light pollution stars were much more visble to the naked eye.

So the nightsky before the invention and widespread use of gas streetlights looked really different.

So even with just the naked eye, in ancient greece and the mayan could watch the sky and they notice how the lights on the nightsky move and even could calculate their orbits.

Thats why planets are called planets, dating back to the greek word for wanderer.

[purplepoppy]

Stars are fixed in their celestial path but planets move differently. The ancients would have seen them as points of light but not understood what a star was

[WhitneySnow]

Planets are brighter than regular stars plus they move around a lot more in the sky. That’s how people knew they weren’t stars.

[Vivaldi]

Stars move as fast as planets in the sky as Earth revolves around itself.

And only Venus and Jupiter are brighter than the brightest star Sirius.

[WhitneySnow]

Well they definitely knew somehow. People named the planets back in Roman times.

[Vivaldi]

They certainly didn't know stars are suns.

[WhitneySnow]

But they knew stars and planets are different

[Anonymous]

Ancient knowledge. We've always known. Civilisation has risen and fallen more times than we know...