Spiridon Gopčević, nom de plume Leo Brenner was a Serbian-Austrian astronomer and historian born in Trieste.
Background
His father, also named Spiridon, was a great shipowner in Trieste, then Austrian Littoral (modern Italy), but had originated from the village of Podi near Herceg Novi, in Boka Kotorska (modern Montenegro), then a part of the Austrian Empire. After the death of his father, when Spiridon was a boy, he was sent to Vienna to be educated. Following the death of his mother, he became a journalist by trade.
Career
Among his works he published Old Serbia and Macedonia in 1889, an ethnographic study. However he spent time in jail in 1893 due to some of his articles against the Austro-Hungarian government, and decided to end his journalistic career. Astronomy became the dominant interest in Gopčević"s life and, to a most unusual extent, his work was his life and his life was his work.
In 1893 he founded Manora Observatory on Mali Lošinj in present-day Croatia.
At this observatory, Spiridon used the 17.5 cm refractor telescope at the observatory to make observations of Mars, the rings of Saturn, and other planets. However he would eventually close the observatory in 1909 due to financial problems, and the telescope was offered for sale.
He spent several years in America before returning to Europe and editing an army journal in Berlin during the war. The circumstances of his death are somewhat uncertain, but he appears to have been impoverished.
A new observatory was built on Mali Lošinj in 1993, and was named “Leo Brenner“.