Christoph Scheiner

Christoph Scheiner Historical Figure Nationality: Germany Year of Birth: 1573 or 1575 Year of Death: 1650 Cause of Death: Natural Causes Religion: Catholicism Occupation: Priest, physicist and astronomer Fictional Appearances: 1632 series POD: May, 1631 Appearance(s): 1634: The Galileo Affair Grantville Gazette XI

Christoph Scheiner (1573 (or 1575)– 1650) was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt. He published several works in his lifetime, and was the inventor of the pantograph.

Christoph Scheiner in 1632

Christoph Scheiner was one of the main complainants against Galileo Galilei. At Galileo's trial in 1634, Schiener delivered the argument against him, and was impressed by Lawrence Mazzare's defense of Galileo. After being elevated to cardinal, Mazzare requested, and received, Scheiner's services, arguing that while Grantville had books on astronomy, it had no astronomers.

In May of 1635, as part of Cardinal Mazzare's staff, he attempted to read a modern textbook on astronomy, but the fact it was written in English (a language he was not comfortable reading), combined with the advanced principles, confused him. He shared his problems with Cardinal Mazzare, who arranged a meeting with amateur astronomer Johnnie Farrell.

Even after meeting with Farrell, Scheiner was still perplexed by some of the terms used in 20th century astronomy. Upon learning of the planet Uranus (Farrell described the planet and the common pun on the planet's name) Scheiner wanted to see it as the outer planets hadn't yet been discovered. Farrell agreed to help, although he pointed out that while he had data on the planet's location in the late 20th century, he did not know how to calculate its orbit, and his telescope's "go-to" didn't recognize dates before 1990. Fortunately, Scheiner also had the Rudolphine Tables and the rest of Kepler's work on planetary orbits, and did know the necessary math. Thus the work of the past and the future were combined and brought to bear.

Upon Scheiner's inquiry, Farrell admitted he was drawn to astronomy because he was drawn to the beauty of the universe, a motivation Scheiner shared.

In the next month, Scheiner and Farrell pinpointed the location of Uranus. Schiener let Farrell have the first look, and noted that history might remember Farrell as "the discoverer of the seventh planet."