Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to use a telescope to study the heavens.

Galileo made a number of observations that finally helped convince people that the
Sun-centered solar system model (the heliocentric model), as proposed by Copernicus,
was correct. These arguments can be divided into two kinds: Those that proved that
the Ptolemaic model was incorrect; and those that undermined the broader philosophy
of Aristotelianism that included the Ptolemaic model. We'll first consider some
philosophically important observations and then the ones that proved Venus, at least,
goes around the Sun and not around Earth.

Sun and Moon

One of the ideas that made Aristotelianism popular with the church during the middle
ages was that the heavens are perfect. This also meant that they were unchanging,
because if they change then either they weren't perfect before or they won't be perfect
after the change.

Galileo discovered spots on the Sun and also saw that the surface of the Moon was
rough. People really tried hard to account for these observations without making the
heavens imperfect; one suggestion was that over the mountains of the Moon there was
a layer of clear crystal so the final surface would be smooth and perfect!

Jupiters Moons

Galileo saw near Jupiter what he first thought to be stars. When he realized that the
stars were actually going around Jupiter, it negated a major argument of the Ptolemaic
model. Not only did this mean that the Earth could not be the only center of motion,
but also it knocked a hole in another argument. The supporters of the Ptolemaic model
argued that if the Earth were moving through space, the Moon would be left behind.
Galileos observations showed that the moons of Jupiter were not being left behind as
Jupiter moved.

Phases of Venus

One observation definitely disproved the Ptolemaic model, although it didn't prove
that Copernicus was right (as Tycho Brahe pointed out). This was the observation that
Venus has phases, much like our Moon does.

To the naked eye, Venus always appears as a bright dot in the sky. With a telescope,
however, it is fairly easy to see the phases of Venus. Just as the Moon has phases,
Venus too has phases based on the planets position relative to us and the Sun.

There was no way for the Ptolemaic model (Earth centered solar system) to account
for these phases. They can only occur as Galileo saw them if Venus is circling the
Sun, not the Earth.

Inventions, discoveries of Galileo Galilei that shaped

modern science
The thermoscope: One of Galileo Galilei's most noteworthy inventions made around 1593,
was the thermoscope, an earlier version of the thermometer. The thermoscope was a device built
from a small vase filled with water, attached to a thin vertically rising pipe, with a large empty
glass ball at the top. Changes in temperature of the upper ball would exert positive or vacuum
pressure on the water below, causing it to rise or lower in the thin column.

However, the thermoscope depended on both temperature and pressure. A group of academics
and technicians known as the Accademia del Cimento of Florence, who included Galileo's pupil,
Torricelli and Torricelli's pupil Viviani later invented a device known as the Galileo thermometer
(pictured below), based on Galileo's principle on which this thermometer is based. It is made of
a sealed glass cylinder containing a clear liquid and several glass vessels of varying densities. As
temperature changes, the individual floats rise or fall in proportion to their respective density.
The outer vessel was filled with 'rectified spirits of wine' (a concentrated solution of ethanol in
water); the weights of the glass bubbles were adjusted by grinding a small amount of glass from
the sealed end; and a small air space was left at the top of the main vessel to allow for the liquor
to expand.

The Galilean thermometer

The device was revived in the modern era by the Natural History Museum, London,
which started selling a version in the 1990s.

The telescope: Although the telescope was invented by German-Dutch spectacle-maker

Hans Lippershey in 1608, Galileo made a version based on descriptions Lippershey's invention
the following year in 1609. Intially capable of about 3x magnification, Galileo later made
improved versions with up to about 30x magnification.
An observer could see magnified, upright images on the earth with a Galilean telescope, which
also came to be known as a refracting telescope. It used a convergent objective lens and a
divergent eyepiece lens. Because the design has no intermediary focus, the resulting images
were non inverted and upright. Although images were blurry and distorted due to design flaws
like the shape of the lens and the narrow field of view, it was still good enough for Galileo to
explore the sky. The Galilean telescope could view the phases of Venus, and was able to see
craters on the Moon and four moons orbiting Jupiter.