piridon Gopcevic,pseud. Leo Brenner, was born in Trieste 9 July 1855 in his parent's house that was located in the central part of Trieste called the Grand Canal (Canalgrande). His father, also named Spiridon, was a great shipowner in Trieste (Italy) but who originated from the village of Podi near Herceg Novi in Boka Kotorska in present-day Croatia.

Spiridon Gopcevic is one of the most controversial astronomers in the history of that science, and is difficult person to describe. He was an historian, diplomat, publicist and astronomer who was involved in politics, journalism, music, writing, history, and astronomy, and even had a crater on the moon named after his pseudonym, Leo Brenner. Apart from his scientific endeavors, he travelled throughout the Central and Eastern Balkans doing research and subsequently writing extensively about ethnic communities. It would be probably best to say that he was an adventurer with a great spectrum of knowledge who is today also remembered as a dilettante Austrian astronomer.

Spiridon's father died when he was young so his mother sent him to study in Vienna. After mother died, he terminated his studies and started a very successful carreer as a journalist, becoming  famous in all of Europe for his articles from the war zones at the time. As a political speaker, he kept his family tradition by speaking out for the unity of all south slav nationalities under the Kingdom of Serbia. With time he left this political idea and took a position in the Austrian Monarchy. After being jailed for writings concerning the goverment  he terminated his career in journalism in 1893. The same year he left Vienna with his wife who was from a rich and noble Austrian family, and with the support of the Austrian goverment on the 18^th September 1893, he arrived in Mali Lošinj where he founded his observatory "Manora Sternwarte".

Manora Sernwarte

This is when he adopted the name "Leo Brenner" and began his career in astronomy. In a very short time thanks to his terill observations of the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn he became known in the world of astronomy. His articles and observations were published in the best astronomy journals at the time and he corrensponded with the greatest astronomers of that time (such as Lowell, Wolf, Palisa, Fauth, etc., and also with Croatian astronomer Oton Kucera). With time, attempting to  maintain his reputation he began to boost his observations with data that could not be proved and thus his reputation started to slide. Being confronted with the fact that the major astronomy journals no longer would publish his articles, in 1899 he began to publish his own journal called "Astronomische Rundschau" which ran until 1909. Having lost his good reputation as an astronomer, he left behind the field of astronomy and the city of Mali Lošinj in 1909 and went to America where he wrote music with little success.

After a few years in America and just before the start of World War I, Gopcevic returned to Europe and worked as editor on an army journal in Berlin where he wrote pamphlets on the theme of the reunification of all South-Slav nationalities under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. As the years passed, he fell into anonimity and it is said that he died in Berlin in 1936. This was never confirmed.

Today, the name of Spiridon Gopcevic (Leo Brenner) in the history of astronomy is mostly known as the name of a crater on the Moon called "Leo Brenner", so named by Gopcevic's old friend and German astronomer Phillip Fauth (1867-1941). The crater is north of Janssen (alte terre meridionali), 39°S / 39,3°E; has a diameter of 97 km and height 3300 m.

The founding of the Astronomical Society “Leo Brenner”

The Astronomical Society “Leo Brenner” was founded in 1993 in Mali Losinj (Croatia) around the 100^th anniversary of the Gopcevic's original observatory in the city of Mali Lošinj. The new observatory was the outcome of years of effort on the part of Valter Martinolic who, in 1987, had founded an astronomy section in the elementary school in Mali Lošinj. Being the founder, he was also named the first president of the Society.  Major part of the text was written by Dorian Bozicevic (edited)

Sources: 

• Astronomical Society "Leo Brenner" - History
• Kosovo Origins by Hugo Roth - Ch. 6: Between the Slava and the Prophet
• Andromeda - Glossario Lunare