Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita

Anton Maria de Schyrleus Rheita (originally Johann Burkhard Schyrl, Schyrle, Schürle; * 1604 in Reutte, † October / November 1660 in Ravenna) was a priest and astronomer. He was a master of the construction of telescopes.

Life

Born in 1604 in Reutte was his older half- brother George Schyrle since 1622 Councillor and chef at the Prince-Bishop of Freising Veit Adam of Gepeckh and his brother Elias, built in 1643, Father in Birgitt Order in Altomuenster at Augsburg.

Order entry and first optical studies

At the age of 18 he joined as a monk in the monastery Indian village of Augustinian canons and came on 14 October 1623, a three-year study in Ingolstadt, where he was also familiar with astronomy. At the University of Ingolstadt before Christoph Scheiner, Johann Baptist Cysat and now the Jesuit Jerome Kinig (1582-1646), who remained in Ingolstadt to 1626, optics and astronomy were taught. Here he acquired theoretical and practical knowledge on to grind lenses and to arrange them by the alternation of concave and convex so that desired magnifications were achieved.

After his studies, he, however, never returned to the Augustinians, but entered 1627 in Passau in the Capuchin Order a. His family was among the monastic tradition, according to; his monastery received the name Anton Maria "de Rheita " ( Reutte ). 1636 sent him his order as a lecturer of philosophy by Linz.

Diplomat and courier

On the local castle held Emperor Ferdinand III. for political reasons, the Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern caught. Schyrle served that in 1637 first as confessor and counselor, but since 1638 as a diplomat and courier, for which he had received from the Pope permission to travel. 1640 he traveled as a representative of the electors to Visitatione Sacrorum Liminum to Rome to Pope Urban VIII, to tell him about the state of the dioceses of Trier and Speyer. The Emperor, become suspicious by this confidential contacts, banished Schyrle 1641 from all Habsburg lands.

( According to another tradition, to his early years he is came from Bohemia Antonín Maria Šírek z Reity (* 1597 Bohemia, . † 1660 Ravenna) was a priest and a member of the Capuchin fraternity in the monastery Rheit in Bohemia Such a monastery but is nowhere to be found. . )

Other astronomical research

Thus he was separated for four years by the electors, in which he researched diligently. 1642 made ​​in Cologne Schyrle astronomical observations and optical measurements. 1643 appeared in Leuven his scientific debut. Schyrle said " prove " that the planet Jupiter has not four but nine moons and Saturn six. He also believed that "discovered" to have moons. However Schyrle fälscherlicherweise pointed stars in the background of the planet as their putative satellites. Therefore, and because he claimed together with Mala Part and Tarde, Scheiner's sunspots were planets, called him Johann Heinrich von Mädler "not at all happy in his astronomical conjectures ".

1643 he was in Augsburg by Johann Wiesel. Here he also met Gervase Matt Mueller ( * 1593, † May 2, 1668 ), who lived in Vienna since 1637 as imperial engineer and optician. In August 1644 he was on the preparation of his book in Antwerp. 1645, after Kepler had pointed out that one could raise the reversed appearing in his telescope image by adding a third lens again, constructed Schyrle first such a terrestrial telescope. In Antwerp he was in the same year released his main scientific work Oculus Enoch et Eliae with which he presented his binocular telescope. ( The mention of the prophets Enoch and Elias, who saw a new world in the coming of Christ should point out that with the new telescope new worlds can also be discovered. )

When the Elector in 1645 returned from captivity, took Schyrle to him to Trier and was dragged as his political adviser in the bitter power struggle for his succession. But his activity to the elector gave him the financial backing to continue its costly research. When the Elector died in 1652, left Schyrle Trier, in order to escape arrest.

However, his enemies and not unleashed against him rested an Inquisition process, which occupied him until his death. In 1653 he was placed in Brussels on instructions from Rome under arrest, but was able to escape the prison and came after a flight over France soon returned to Germany. He began the construction of a roughly three -meter telescope for the Elector of Mainz, Johann Philipp von Schönborn.

Activity and monastery prison in Italy and the start of production of telescopes

1656 ordered the General of the Order Schyrle to Rome, Bologna showed him as an abode, where he was in convent prison after a short freedom. 1657 Pope Alexander VII decreed his banishment to Ravenna. In exile again Schyrle developed great creative power, as Zinner made a powerful telescope for the Elector of Mainz. In 1657 he planned to set up the first modern observatory in the world in Mainz. But since he never gained the freedom and died on exile, this project remained unrealized.

Pioneer of telescope construction

As a pioneer of telescope construction towering over Galilei and Johannes Kepler. His telescope of four convex lenses allowed hitherto not achieved observations. He brought the exact plan that allowed a standard production, in the remote shell. Even more significant were his theoretical discussion of the astronomical telescope. He created the still common terms objective and eyepiece. With his binocular telescope he scored bigger and sharper images than with the usual einrohrigen. He also formed continuously from opticians. One of his students offered developed by Schyrle telescope at the English to purchase. The British made ​​this telescope forth from itself in 1660 and used it once and for military purposes.

The lunar crater Rheita is named after him.