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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greco-Roman astronomer in Alexandria whose Almagest, written about 150 CE, formalized the geocentric model.
John Herschel was a British astronomer who surveyed southern skies from South Africa in the 1830s and cataloged nebulae and clusters.
Ulugh Beg was a Timurid ruler and astronomer who built the Samarkand observatory and compiled a major star catalog in the 15th century.
Charles Messier was a French astronomer whose 18th-century catalog listed nebulae and clusters to help comet hunters avoid confusion.
Caroline Herschel was a German-born British astronomer who discovered several comets and became a paid royal astronomer in 1787.
Al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer whose 964 Book of Fixed Stars described constellations and gave one of the earliest records of Andromeda.
Edward Charles Pickering was an American astronomer who directed Harvard College Observatory from 1877 and expanded photographic surveys.
Williamina Fleming was a Scottish-American astronomer at Harvard who classified thousands of stars and discovered the Horsehead Nebula.
Johannes Hevelius was a Polish astronomer in Gdansk who published detailed lunar maps in 1647 and described several constellations.
John Flamsteed was England's first Astronomer Royal, appointed in 1675, and produced the Historia Coelestis Britannica star catalog.
