Famous People

Classic times historical       present
Thales of Milete Founder of the Greek astronomy
Plato First official descriptions of Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the stars
Aristotle Believed the planets and the Earth where spheres, and that the Sun, Moon and other planets were circling around the Earth.
Hipparchus Founder of the systematic oberservation of the Universe
Claudius Ptolomy Made a description of the orbits of all known planets, a theory which lasted for 1500 years

Historical times  classic      present
Nicholas Copernicus Discovered that the earth is rotating around its axes
Tycho Brahe First astronomer who observed the exact position of various stars. Built the first astronomical observatory
Johann Kepler Eclipse of the planets
Galileo Galilei Moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and sun spots
Christiaan Huygens Mapped out the Martian surface, and discovered the rings of Saturn.
Sir Isaac Newton Discovered the force of "Gravity" and invented the reflecting telescope.
Sir Edmund Halley Discovered Halley's comet, and worked with elliptical orbits.

Present times classic       historical 
Jean Bernard Foucault Took the firat photographs of the Sun, and measures the velocity of light.
Albert Einstein Developed the Theories of Relativity, which changed all ideas of the Universe, energy, matter and time.
Edwin Hubble Noticed the expansion of the Universe

index