Jeffrey S. Medkeff
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Jeffrey S. Medkeff (usually known as Jeff Medkeff) is a prominent science writer and educator. He is also a designer of robotic telescopes, a minor philanthropist, and an advocate of personal and sexual freedom.
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[edit] Early life
Jeff was born in Akron, Ohio in 1968, and was raised in nearby Cuyahoga Falls. He contracted asthma early in life, and endured several prolonged hospitalizations as a child. The condition was severe enough to restrict his activity and pose a threat to his life. He attributes his lifelong love of reading and self-directed learning to this experience.
[edit] Career as a systems professional
Jeff was educated at Ohio State University. He was a principal in a technology start-up in the early 1990s, which was sold at great profit. He later took a position as a systems analyst at Ohio State, where he worked while his wife completed veterinary school.
In 1994, Jeff moved to Sierra Vista, Arizona, where he began working at Junk Bond Observatory in an asteroid hunting program. Quickly tiring of the tedious work, he began development of an automated observing and reduction system for this work.
In 1997, he adopted an early form of the Astronomy Common Object Model standard as his primary means of communicating with devices such as telescopes and cameras. He credits the ability to use pre-existing drivers and utility objects as freeing him to concentrate on design and workflow issues for the observatory.
The results were reported in a series of papers to the Minor Planet Amateur-Professional Workshops and in journals. By 1999, the observatory's acquisition of asteroid images was fully automated, and a considerable amount of the reduction was automatic as well. He founded Rockland Observatory around this time, and was later appointed director of the privately held Small Telescope Astronomical Research Observatory; further development was done at both facilities.
By the end of 2000, the process of selecting targets for a night's observing was under computer control, while still allowing astronomer-specified targets to be defined, and allowing targets of opportunity to interrupt the night's scheduled observing. By this time, a number of observatories in Arizona, Australia, and Europe were utilizing Jeff's system in whole or part. From 2000 to 2004, Jeff refined the software, and also adapted it for use in supernova surveys, cataclysmic variable star photometry, and trans-Neptunian object surveys. By 2004, a number of famous observatories had licensed the software or adapted the source code for their use.
As a result of this work, Jeff accidentally discovered a number of asteroids. In 2003, the International Astronomical Union recognised his contribution to science by naming asteroid 41450 Medkeff in his honor.
In the spring of 2004, Jeff sold his company to a firm specializing in automating seismic observations and retired from the technology field.
[edit] Career as science writer and educator
Jeff began writing on science topics in the 1980s, with his first published article appearing in the September, 1986 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. He joined that publication as a Contributing Editor in 1997, writing many articles until he resigned the position in 2004. During this period, he also served as a source for numerous journalists and offered background materials on asteroids to many journalists.
In the late 1990s, he was also active in an astronomy club whose mission included public education about astronomy. He developed several talks covering various topics of interest to the general public, and gave them to a number of venues. He was also a prominent speaker on the star party circuit, delivering talks at the Texas Star Party, the Riverside Telescope Makers' Convention, the Northern Arizona Star Party, and several others.
In 2004, Jeff and his wife moved to Eagle River, Alaska. Having sold his business in Arizona and resigned from his commitment at Sky & Telescope, he concentrated on the development of astronomy and science-oriented educational and public outreach programs. He joined the team of amateur astronomers offering free astronomy lectures at the Eagle River Nature Center, and first delivered a now-popular talk on stellar evolution at that venue in early 2005.
He has gone on to develop several more presentations. He is also distributing background material on science to journalists, and is developing teaching materials and curriculum for teachers and home-schoolers. As of late 2005, he was devoting his personal fortune to this effort, and had not accepted outside funding.
[edit] References
- Healy, David, et al. Small Robotic Observatories: Operations, Deployment, Future Developments. Minor Planet Amateur-Professional Workshop, 2001.
- Healy, David. Presentation at the Image the Sky conference, 2003.
- Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald, June 23 1998.
- Levy, David; Levy, Wendee. Let's Talk Stars, air date October 8, 2002.
- Denny, Bob. IAPPP 2001.
- Minor planet naming citation from Minor White and Myke Collins.
- Huachuca Astronomy Club members observatories page.
- Bakich, Michael. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Amateur Astronomy. 2003. (Foreword by Jeff Medkeff.)
- Medkeff, Jeff. Automatic Asteroid Hunting, Sky & Telescope, August 2000
- Medkeff, Jeff. The ASCOM Revolution, Sky & Telescope, May 2000
- Medkeff, Jeff. My Rubbertown Roots, Sky & Telescope, July 1998
- Medkeff, Jeff. Stellafane: A First-Time Visit, Sky & Telescope, November 1986
