Steve Edberg

Stephen J. Edberg has been an amateur astronomer since his youth, both using telescopes and building telescopes, accessories, and his own observatory. Steve has been on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference, Inc. since 1988, and Executive Director since 1993.

 

Steve’s interests range from meteors in the near sky to quasars in the deep sky and he has traveled the world to solar eclipses and other astronomical events. He also has a strong interest in bringing planetary science and astronomy to the public and into the classroom and has published numerous activities related to planetary science, space science, and astronomy. His photography, research, instruments, classroom activities, writing, and a blog have appeared in professional journals, in popular periodicals, in several books, or on the World Wide Web.

 

Working professionally in astronomy starting with his graduation from high school in 1970 through college at UC Santa Cruz and grad school at UC San Diego and UCLA, Steve eventually settled at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There since 1979, he organized and led the Amateur Observation Network of NASA’s International Halley Watch and led the Cassini outreach team. Maintaining his participation in both the professional and amateur astronomy worlds, Steve has served on the American Astronomical Society’s committee on amateur-professional cooperation and more recently has accepted an invitation to be a member of the Chambliss Award Committee (for amateur achievement and for astronomical writing).

 

Steve is always on the lookout for natural phenomena to see with his own eyes and to photograph. He rides a bicycle for his commute to work and for recreation, choosing from a road bike (his hot rod), a recumbent (his touring convertible), and a mountain bike. His wife Janet has difficulty understanding why, even though he is an active observer, he has so many different telescopes. She complains more about them than about the bicycles taking up space in the garage.