Copernicus (1473 - 1543)

Made his observations a hundred years before the invention of the telescope.

In 1530 he produced De Revolutionibus in which he asserted that the earth orbits the Sun once a year. This went against Ptolemiac theory of an Earth centred universe as supported by the church. (Ptolemy was an important Egyptian thinker A.D. 150)

Copernicus didn't live to see the turmoil his work caused.

His work forever changed the way man thinks about his place in the cosmos. No longer can he assume that he is at the centre of all things.

for more information  http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Copernicus.html