Michael Mastlin

        Michael Mastlin was a renowned astronomer from Germany. Born in 1550 and past away in 1631. Mastlin created many parts of the fundamental aspects of Astronomy. Such noteable contributions to astronomy are the correct interpretation of what is now known as Earthshine, and the idea that the heavens and celestial objects are changeable, which were previously thought to be fixed objects. Mastlin also had contributions to the development of other great minds in Astronomy such as Johan Kepler.
         One of Mastlin's major contributions was the idea of Earthshine. When the Sun shines light onto an object, part of the light is absorbed, while the other part is reflected. As light shines from the Sun to Earth, a portion of the light reflects off Earth onto the moon. Following this process light from the moon is then reflected back to Earth and so on. The farther down the chain the dimmer the light, as at each reflection, the majority of the light is absorbed. Another important contribution by Michael Mastlin was the idea of the heavens being changeable. Mastlin observed a nova in 1572 and presented his observations and concluded that it was proof, that celestial objects are not fixed objects.
       Despite complications with the idea of parallax, Mastlin observed many moveable objects such as Comets. Mastlin also accepted the Copernican models of astronomy. Other facts would be that Mastlin had two wives, and many children. The second wife in particular gave birth to nine of his children. Kepler and Mastlin were two great friends who together developed prestigeous reputations in the fields of astronomy and the study of the heavens. Masltin lived a full 81 years, which in his time, was an amazingly long life.