Steve Gottlieb

Steven Michael Gottlieb (born April 4, 1949) is an American amateur astronomer, researcher, writer and lecturer.

Biography Gottlieb grew up in the Los Angeles area, later moving to Northern California. In 1973, he earned a master's degree in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. Settling in the town of Albany, he taught high school mathematics in the East Bay for 37 years.

Amateur astronomy Gottlieb began systematically observing Messier objects in 1977, using a 6-inch reflecting telescope. He employed many different scopes over the years, observing from dark sky sites near the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sierra Nevada foothills and star party events in California and elsewhere. By 2017, he had logged all 7,840 entries of the NGC Catalogue, completing the list after several visits to the Southern Hemisphere.

Gottlieb describes himself as a "hardcore visual observer", having never developed an interest in astrophotography. For him, "it's always been about the aesthetics at the eyepiece in a large scope".

NGC/IC Project As Gottlieb's interests developed, he researched at the nearby UC Berkeley astronomy library, comparing his observations with those of professionals and with the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. 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.

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

Gottlieb promotes visual observing through public lectures for astronomy and science groups in Northern California and elsewhere.