About a-century-and-a-half before Christ, Hipparchus gave the number of stars as 1,022, and Ptolemy in the beginning of the second century of the Christian era, could find but 1,026. We may on a clear night, with the unaided eye see only 1,160, or if we could survey the whole celestial sphere, about 3,000.
—J. H. Bomberger