Personally, I think the best way to learn about what we know now is to learn about the history of our knowledge of astronomy and space. It's a lot easier to understand why certain things were significant and the train of thought that went into them with historical context.

Check out the book "The Watershed" by Arthur Koestler. The invention of the telescope was a true turning point for our understanding of the universe. Humans were fascinated (and confused) by the sky and the stars and planets for 10s of thousands of years, and then suddenly we could see things like moons orbiting Jupiter, mountains casting shadows on the moon, and crescent lighting on Venus. Everything became more real and tangible and open to scientific exploration, and really helped push people towards the idea that we are not the center of the universe.

Astronomy really was the spark for the scientific revolution.