1597-1660

Bohemian astronomer who produced the first lunar map to represent the Moon as seen through an inverting telescope—with its southern-most features at the top. Rheita's only scientific treatise of value is Oculus Enoch et Eliae, opus theologiae, philosophiae, et verbi dei praeconibus utile et iucundum (1645), in which he describes an eyepiece, of his own invention, that re-inverted the inverted images of Keplerian refracting telescopes (1645). Rheita coined the terms "ocular" and "objective."