In the year 1654 he became a professor of mathematics in the University of Jena and sprang immediately into favor as a lecturer.[68] Naturalism, as heralded in his day, appealed to him and he became an outspoken opponent of the Latinists and of the Scholastics. When his knowledge of mathematics failed him he was inclined to resort to theology as a subject furnishing endless themes and illustrative material. From his early belief in astrology he turned to astronomy, but he remained a visionary, making some contribution to the science but none of lasting value. He appears to have been particularly distressed over the heathen names of the several constellations and the figures which so long had been employed to represent them, regarding such representations as sacrilegious and wholly unworthy the great inventive genius of man. All this he wished to have swept from the heavens, proposing to substitute for the same the coats of arms of the ruling houses of Europe.[69] For Ursa Major he proposed the name Elephas with the figure of the Danish elephant, for Orion the name Aquila biceps and the Austrian double eagle, for Hercules the name Eques cum districto gladio and the insignia of Poland, for Leo the name tria Castella cum Aureo Vellere and the insignia of Spain, for Erichthonius the name Lilia tria and the insignia of France, for Lyra the name Citharae and the insignia of Britain, running thus through the entire list. In assigning his new names to the constellations he endeavored, in so far as possible, to assign them to such relative position in the heavens as the respective countries or houses occupied on earth. In one of his publications[70] Weigel describes his several mechanical devices, including his globes, to which he refers as “Globus Mundanus,” “Viceglobus,” “Globus coelestis perpetuus,” and “Geocosmus,” the latter being referred to by the author as a useful terrestrial globe, which exhibits not only all countries, but the time of the day and of the year in all localities; also the wind and the rain and volcanic eruptions. Coronelli gives a brief description of the same, which he calls a “Pancosmo, o Mondo Universale,” from which, in the main, the following is taken.[71]