CHRISTOPHER**, a German mathematician and astronomer, eminent for being the first who discovered spots on the sun, was born at Schwaben, in the territory of Middleheim, in 1575. He first discovered spots on the sun's disk in 1611, 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 things relating to mathematics and philosophy, and died in 1660.