Scheiner, Christoph

Scheiner, Christoph (kris'tôf shīn'ur) [key], 1579?–1650, German astronomer and mathematician, a Jesuit priest. He taught at Ingolstadt, Rome, and elsewhere and became rector of a Jesuit college at Neisse, Germany, in 1622. His observation of sunspots in 1611 was recorded in two works (1612) and resulted in a controversy with Galileo, who claimed that he was the first to discover sunspots. Scheiner made over 2,000 observations of the sun and embodied the results of his studies in Rosa ursina (1630). His pioneer research on the physiology of vision appeared in his Oculus (1619).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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