Observation of the phases of Venus proved that it traveled round the Sun

Among the new worlds revealed by his telescope, Galileo noticed three
next to the planet Jupiter. Over some weeks he followed them, soon
adding a fourth, and saw that they now disappeared, then reappeared,
always accompanying Jupiter on its path across the sky. Until then it
had been held against the Copernican theory that, if the Earth was
supposed to be a planet, why should it alone have a moon going round
it? Now Jupiter evidently had four. These discoveries were made at
the beginning of 1610. In the autumn, the telescope showed him
regular phases, like those of the Moon, in the planet Venus. This
could only mean that Venus must be traveling round the Sun.
All this astounded Europe. Kepler relates how his friend the courtier, Wackher, called to him from his carriage with the news, within a
week of Galileo's publication of his report, The Sidereal Messenger
(1610). The leading astronomer in Rome, the German Jesuit Christopher Clavius (1537-1612), repeated Galileo's observations, and
confirmed them. His was the deciding voice, for many, including
some prominent astronomers, insisted they could see nothing, and
that Galileo was deceiving himself, or trying to deceive others. Among
the doubters was Galileo's friend, the philosopher, Cremonini, who
was an uncompromising Aristotelian; he told a mutual friend that
"looking through these glasses would make me dizzy". Artists and
writers were often Galileo's most enthusiastic supporters.
Now Galileo was invited to be "philosopher and chief mathema Galileo's notebook
entries for certain nights in
1612 and 1613 relate to the
satellites of Jupiter.
~ Jupiter with 10 and
Europa. Until Galileo's
discovery of four Jovean
moons, opponents of the
Sun-centered Copernican
system could ask: if the
Earth is a planet and not the
center of the Universe, why
should it alone have a moon
going round it7
~ Galileo invented a
device called a Jovilabe to
calculate the position of
Jupiter's satellites. The four
largest are represented by
the numbered circles .
Galileo was mystified by
Saturn's "tripte nature"
seen in this sketch of 1612.
The true nature of the rings,
which his telescope was not
powerful enough to detect,
was revealed in 1667.