'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, known to the West as Azophi, was a Persian astronomer who lived between 903-986 CE (291-376 AH). In 964 CE (353 AH), he noted what he described as a "small cloud" lying before the mouth of "Big Fish," an Arabic constellation, in his manuscript, the Book of Fixed Stars. Although he was not the first astronomer at the Isfahan observatory to have seen the "cloud," he was the first to record the Andromeda Galaxy's presence.
As-Sufi made a number of other important astronomical observations, and he has been acknowledged by modern-day astronomers by having a lunar crater and an asteroid named after him.
