The phases of Venus, observed by Galileo in 1610

A replica of the earliest surviving telescope attributed to Galileo Galilei, on display at the Griffith Observatory.

Dome of the cathedral of Pisa with the "lamp of Galileo"

Aristarchus's 3rd century BC calculations on the relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon, from a 10th century AD Greek copy

In the 17th century AD Galileo Galilei opposed the Roman Catholic Church by his strong support for heliocentrism

Aryabhata, 5th century, developed a computational planetary model which has been interpreted as heliocentric