  Since the dawn of telescopic astronomy astronomers have observed and measured
the "spurious" telescopic disks of stars, generally reporting that brighter
stars have larger disks than fainter stars. Early observers such as Galileo
Galilei interpreted these disks as being the physical bodies of stars; later
observers such as William Herschel understood them to be spurious; some, such
as Christian Huygens, argued that stars show no disks at all. In the early 19th
century George B. Airy produced a theoretical explanation of star images
sufficient to explain all historical observations, but astronomers were slow to
fully recognize this. Even today conventional wisdom concerning stars and
telescopes stands at odds to both historical observations and Airy's theory. We
give a detailed analysis of both historical observations and Airy's theory,
illustrating how Airy's theory explains the historical observations, from
Galileo to Huygens to Herschel. We argue that the observations themselves
appear in all cases to be valid and worth further study.
