Steven Michael Gottlieb (born April 4, 1949) is an American

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

, researcher, writer and lecturer.

Biography

Gottlieb grew up in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area, later moving to

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. In 1973, he earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Settling in the town of Albany, he taught high school mathematics in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...

for 37 years.

Amateur astronomy

Gottlieb began systematically observing

Messier objects The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his ''Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d'Étoiles'' (''Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters''). Because Messier was only int ...

in 1977, using a 6-inch

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

. He employed many different scopes over the years, observing from dark sky sites near the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

foothills and

star party A star party is a gathering of amateur astronomers the purpose of observing objects and events in the sky. Local star parties may be one-night affairs, but larger events can last a week or longer and attract hundreds or even thousands of partici ...

events in California and elsewhere. By 2017, he had logged all 7,840 entries of the

NGC Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and ...

, completing the list after several visits to the southern hemisphere. His resulting compendium of observing reports has become a valuable resource for amateur astronomers. Gottlieb describes himself as a "hardcore visual

observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in con ...

", having never developed an interest in

astrophotography Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it was no ...

. For him, "it's always been about the aesthetics at the eyepiece in a large scope". Currently his main telescope is a 24-inch StarStructure

Dobsonian A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. Dobson's telescopes featured a simplified ...

with computerized

GoTo GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function ca ...

system. As of this writing, Gottlieb is the only known person to have visually observed all of the valid NGC objects.

NGC/IC Project

As Gottlieb's interests developed, he researched at the nearby

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

astronomy library, comparing his observations with those of professionals and with the

Palomar Observatory Sky Survey Palomar may refer to: Places * Any of several locations in San Diego County, California: ** Palomar Mountain ** Palomar Observatory, located on Palomar Mountain ** Palomar College in San Marcos, California ** Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, C ...

. While so doing he discovered numerous errors and conflicting data, so began corresponding with other astronomers including Dr. Harold Corwin of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Gottlieb thus became one of the principal investigators of the NGC/IC Project, a collaboration among professional and amateur astronomers to identify and image objects, compile historical observations and correct mistakes in the NGC and IC catalogues. While helping to put the catalogues in order, he also worked with various telescope makers to correct the databases of computerized DSCs (

digital setting circles Setting circles are used on telescopes equipped with an equatorial mount to find astronomical objects in the sky by their equatorial coordinates often used in star charts or ephemerides. Description Setting circles consist of two graduated di ...

) and

systems. Later he gathered the list of objects and wrote descriptions for the "DeepMap 600", a popular folding

star chart A star chart is a celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets. They have been used for human navigation since ...

Astronomy writer, public lecturer

In the 1980s Gottlieb began writing articles for astronomy magazines about observing

galaxy groups A galaxy group or group of galaxies (GrG) is an aggregation of galaxies comprising about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound members, each at least as luminous as the Milky Way (about 1010 times the luminosity of the Sun); collections of galaxies ...

, various types of

nebulae A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming region ...

supernova remnants A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar mat ...

and other topics. He is a Contributing editor for ''

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomi ...

'' magazine, and his observing articles are often featured in the "Going Deep" column. Gottlieb promotes visual observing through public lectures for astronomy and science groups in Northern California and elsewhere.

References

External links

NGC/IC Project

Adventures in Deep Space

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottlieb, Steve 1949 births Living people American astronomers Amateur astronomers University of California alumni People from Los Angeles