SCHEINER, CHRISTOPH, a German mathematician and astronomer, eminent for being one of the first who discovered spots on the sun, was born at Schwaben, in the territory of Mundelheim, 1575. He first discovered spots on the sun's disk in 1611, a few months later than Galileo, and made observations on these phenomena at Rome, until at length reducing them to order, he published them in one volume folio in 1630. He wrote also some smaller pieces relating to mathematics and philosophy, invented the pantograph, and died in 1660.