During the Islamic Golden Age (between the 7th/8th and 13th centuries), humongous strides were made in the field of astronomy (as well as other fields). The discoveries made during this era would go on to influence the works of several well-known western astronomers, such as Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. One of the astronomers to emerge from this time was al-Battani.
Abu Abdallah Mohammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Raqqi al-Harrani al-Sabi al-Battani (al-Battani for short) was an Arabian astronomer born around 858 CE in Harran (present day Turkey). He was first educated by his father, Jabir Ibn San’an al-Battani, until moving to Raqqa where he received an advanced education. Throughout his 42 year-long career, he made several significant discoveries before he died on a trip back from Baghdad in 929 CE. Al-Battani's list of discoveries is quite extensive, and while there are several worth mentioning, I'm going to focus on just a few of his major accomplishments.
During his career, he calculated several values with tremendous accuracy, such as the length of the solar year (his value was 2 minutes and 22 seconds slower than the actual value), the precession of the equinoxes (his value was 4 arcseconds more than the current value), and the inclination of the ecliptic (his value was 9 arcminutes less than today's value). All of these calculations are improvements of Ptolemy's values, which he was able to do by using trigonometry instead of geometrical methods.
Part of his career was dedicated to studying the distance between the Earth and the sun and the eclipses we experience. He was able to show that there are variations in the sun's angular diameter (implying that the distance between the Earth and the sun is not constant), which explains why we experience annular eclipses of the sun (the edges of the sun are still visible) as well as total eclipses. His findings would go on to be referenced in publications from Galileo and Copernicus.
Sources:
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Battani/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Battani
https://mpac-ng.org/abu-abdullah-al-battani-858-ce/
https://www.famousscientists.org/al-battani/
https://ngawi.pikiran-rakyat.com/pendidikan/pr-2314315580/al-battani-bintang-astronomi-muslim-abad-9-menginspirasi-dunia-sains-galileo-hingga-copernicus
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