On the authorship problem of the darkness of the night sky paradox

Abstract

In this paper a prehistory of the so called Olbers' paradox is discussed. The stress is laid not on the paradox and its solution within contemporary cosmology, but rather on its authorship: it is argued that Olbers was not the first to formulate the famous paradox. Some astronomers are quoted (Kepler, Halley, Cheseaux), who long before Olbers were aware of the problem of the darkness of the night sky and who wrote about it. Their solutions to the paradox in question were not correct, but neither was Olbers'; to resolve the paradox one has to assume that universe had its beginning and that it expands.