If I look into the sky and I see two yellow dots it’s all stars for me. Then I hear one of them is mars and I’m like „ok, still looks the same“. How did the people hundred of years ago discover what’s a close planet and what’s a far away star?
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The motion of a planet in the sky is very different from that of stars. This will not be obvious by just viewing one night unfortunately. By tracking the motion of the brightest dots in the sky over a period, it becomes clear that certain objects (planets) move very differently than the others (stars).
The telescope was discovered (at least in the western world) in the 1600s. With even a simple telescope it is pretty clear that these objects are not stars.
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