John Martin Schaeberle (January 10, 1853 – September 17, 1924) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

Biography

He was born Johann Martin Schäberle in

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, but in 1854 immigrated as an infant to the

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. Most sources refer to him as John M. Schaeberle, but his family and friends called him Martin. He attended

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s, and then became an

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in a

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. During his apprenticeship, he became interested in astronomy, and decided to finish high school. He then became a student of

James Craig Watson James Craig Watson (January 28, 1838 – November 22, 1880) was a Canadian-American astronomer, discoverer of comets and minor planets, director of the University of Michigan's Detroit Observatory in Ann Arbor, and awarded with the Lalande Priz ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1876 as a civil engineer, but devoted himself to astronomy. He taught astronomy at the University of Michigan from 1876 to 1888. He maintained his own private observatory and discovered three comets. In 1888 he became one of the inaugural astronomers at

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by th ...

. He had charge of the expedition to witness the

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in 1889, and of those for the same purpose to

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in 1893, and to

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in 1896. He designed the "Schaeberle camera" to take pictures of the Sun and its

corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...

during total solar eclipses. He also discovered Procyon B, the faint companion star of

Procyon Procyon () is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor and usually the eighth-brightest star in the night sky, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.34. It has the Bayer designation α Canis Minoris, which is Latinize ...

, in 1896. He resigned from Lick Observatory when

James E. Keeler James Edward Keeler (September 10, 1857 – August 12, 1900) was an American astronomer. He was an early observer of galaxies using photography, as well as the first to show observationally that the rings of Saturn do not rotate as a solid body ...

was made its director instead of him in 1898, despite the fact that he had been acting director since the previous year. He devoted some time to travel, and then continued astronomical studies in

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

. He never held another astronomical post. He was also an athlete and musician. He was a frequent contributor to astronomical journals. Schaeberle died in Ann Arbor. There are

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

s named after him on both the

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and on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

Comets discovered

*C/1880 G1 (Schaeberle) *C/1881 N1 (Schaeberle)

Notes

External links

Portraits of John Martin Schaeberle from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
* https://web.archive.org/web/20051216081237/http://www.detroitobservatory.umich.edu/JAHH2003/DetroitObservatoryArticle.pdf *

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

,
Schaeberle's Comet
, 27-Aug-1881, pp. 129

Obituaries

(one paragraph)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaeberle, John Martin 1853 births 1924 deaths 20th-century American astronomers 19th-century German astronomers University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni German emigrants to the United States University of Michigan faculty