He was born Johann Martin Schäberle in the
Kingdom of Württemberg,
German Confederation, but in 1854 was brought as an infant to the
United States. Most sources refer to him as John M. Schaeberle, but his family and friends called him Martin. He attended
public schools, and then became an
apprentice in a
machine shop. During his apprenticeship, he became interested in astronomy, and decided to finish high school. He maintained his own private observatory and discovered three comets. In 1888 he became one of the inaugural astronomers at
Lick Observatory. He had charge of the expedition to witness the
solar eclipse at
Cayenne in 1889, and of those for the same purpose to
Chile in 1893, and to
Japan in 1896. He designed the "Schaeberle camera" to take pictures of the Sun and its
corona during total solar eclipses. He also discovered Procyon B, the faint companion star of
Procyon, in 1896. He resigned from Lick Observatory when
James E. Keeler was made its director instead of him in 1898, despite the fact that he had been acting director since the previous year. He devoted some time to travel, and then continued astronomical studies in
Ann Arbor. He never held another astronomical post. He was also an athlete and musician. He was a frequent contributor to astronomical journals. Schaeberle died in Ann Arbor. There are
craters named after him on both the
Moon and on
Mars. ==Comets discovered==