Mel Bartels

Mel Bartels (born 1954) is an amateur astronomer after whom the asteroid 17823 Bartels was named. 17823 Bartels lies in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter.

Professionally, Bartels works as a software architect near Eugene, Oregon, U.S..

Bartels is notable for his developing a free suite of realtime software for the computer control of GoTo altitude-azimuth telescope drives.