Pythagoras

Geometry - "All is number"

"Music of the Spheres"

7 planets/notes/days

Plato

Aesthetics - "Beauty is Truth. Truth Beauty"

"Save the appearances"
(e.g., explain apparently messy retrograde motions using perfect, beautiful Uniform Circular motions)

Geocentric; finite

Aristotle

Physics - "Everything follows its Nature"

Earth, Air, Fire, Water (and Aether)

Geocentric; finite

Library of Alexandria
(Aristotle's pupil Alexander the Great)

Eratosthenes (size of earth)

Aristarchus (distances to sun and moon, heliocentric)

Library burned... Hypatia burned...

Hipparchus

Geocentric model, with Deferent, Epicycle and Eccentric.

Geocentric; finite

Ptolemy

Refined Hipparchus' model.

Geocentric model, with Deferent, Epicycle and Eccentric. (And equant.)

Model explains retrograde motions, using combinations of Uniform Circular motions.

Finite cosmos

Note the passage of centuries before next major model

Copernicus

Earth revolves around Sun (year), and rotates about its own axis (day).

Model explains retrograde motions-- naturally.

Heliocentric; finite

Brahe

First master of astronomical observation.

Kepler

"Harmony of the Worlds"

Planets orbit Sun in Ellipses-- not uniform circles.

3 Laws of planetary motion.

Heliocentric; finite

Galileo

Telescope observations provide strong evidence for Heliocentric cosmos.

Forced to recant his views by the church.

Newton

3 Laws of motion

Law of gravitation

Laws are Universal, apply equally to terrestrial and celestial bodies.

Heliocentric, infinite cosmos.

Einstein

Theory of Relativity
(neither geo- nor helio-centric... there is no center)

Gravity as curved Spacetime (not a force)

Unified Theory "to know the mind of God"

Cosmos could be either finite or infinite depending upon total mass