Jeff DeTray

After more than two decades as an armchair astronomer, Jeff stopped reading about it and resumed doing it in the winter of 1997 during the apparition of Comet Hale-Bopp. Like many others for whom Hale-Bopp rekindled a desire to observe the night sky, the comet marked his first return to “serious” astronomical observing in many years. 

When Hale-Bopp came along, he built a manually operated barn door camera tracker to make time-exposure photos of the comet and began observing other astronomical objects with an old 7x35 binocular. A better binocular soon followed, then a small telescope, followed by a motor-driven barn door and a larger scope. His wife began calling me “Astronomy Boy” and suggested I register the domain name… now he writes the popular astronomy website, Astronomy Boy.

Jeff has a background in paper-and-ink publishing, having worked for nearly 20 years in the computer magazine business. Magazines of which he was a publisher include Practical Windows, DOS World, I-Way, Portable Computing, and CD-ROM Review. In addition, Jeff was the editorial director for 80 Micro, inCider, RUN, and 73 Magazine. 

He now observes the heavens from Black Swamp Observatory, in his backyard in rural Ohio.