Abd al-Rahman Al Sufi (d.986)

Here are some links to another lost scholar of Islam that the modern world owes an unpayable debt to.

"He identified the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible from Yemen, though not from Isfahan; it was not seen by Europeans until Magellan's voyage in the 16th century.[1][2] He also made the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda Galaxy in 964 AD; describing it as a "small cloud".[3] These were the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth."

http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/alsufi.html

http://seds.org/messier/more/m031_alsufi.html

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/Al-Sufi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahman_al-Sufi