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Telescope Designer and Astronomer John Dobson, 1915-2014
As noted by Sky & Telescope, SpaceWatchtower, and many other sources, astronomer and telescope innovator John Dobson died yesterday in Burbank, California, at the age of 98. He's famous as an inspiration for others to explore astronomy, in part through the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, which he co-founded in 1967, and as designer of the telescope variety which bears his name.
built a Dobson telescope when I was a kid. Many memorable nights in the back yard with that Dobson.. RIP
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
I'm sorry to read this.
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
~Vincent van Gogh
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
I built an 8in Dob back in 2004 using the plans from the San Fransisco Sidewalk Astronomers. You can stargaze with others using fancy electronic scopes but the interest always turns to the homemade one. A worthwhile project for anyone who enjoys astronomy.
It's good to see the recognition for a guy who helped make it a bit more affordable for backyard stargazers to get into a serious scope without selling a kidney.
My astronomy group hosted John a few years back for a lecture, sadly I didn't make it but he did stay at a member's house for a few days while on his tour. The guy who hosted John still has an 8 inch dob that is signed by John Dobson. It's always neat when he brings it out to the star parties. Also, a few members have engaged in sidewalk astronomy over the last few years. I think this is another tip of the hat to John Dobson who was still doing his sidewalk work until at least mid 2013.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
We need more guys like Dobson. RIP.
John's simple but effective methods for building large aperture telescopes opened the sky to a whole new audience.
It's a sad day. He did so much to advance the art of telescope making and to make the night sky accessible to everyone.
Perhaps a fitting memorial would be a national "dark skies" law, so that we all can have a night sky worth looking up for.
Because they were cheap for the size. you can get an 8 inch or larger scope that will let you split the rings of Saturn for 1/2 the price of a lesser scope that still only shows you blobs.
And they are insanely easy to maintain.
RIP for the man who made decent astronomy available to the poor man.
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John was getting into frail health a few years ago. I would have liked to meet him back in the 70s or 80s. Someone in our astronomy club latched onto video of him back then and it's a real hoot to watch. He was definitely a hoopy frood.
RIP
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And a long one it was too.
My parents live in a small town, and the community college ran a seminar he taught. He and his young son ended up back at my parents house for dinner a few times while he was in town. His son was very happy to eat there, as apparently Mr. Dobson prepared many of his meals in a blender. They called it goop (or something like that).
His kid played with the Legos still in the house from when I was a kid, and there's still a small Lego shrine in my parents' display case that says "John Lowry Dobson".
The speak fondly of the time they spent with him, even though it was 15 to 20 (?) years ago.
If you can't transport it, it won't get used.
In the late '90s I met Jane Houston, who assisted John in his telescope making classes at the California Academy of Sciences. Her garage was full of mirror blanks, grit sorted into particle sizes, and pine-tar pitch for making pitch laps. I married her in 2000. (Yesterday John passed away on our 14th wedding anniversay.)
Over the next few years, we would often get a call from John at his home in San Francisco, and he would say "It's clear out! Should I finish my dinner?" That was our cue to load the van, pick up John, and take him to either 9th & Geary, or 24th & Noe, and spend the evening doing sidewalk astronomy. We would often have three or four hundred "accidental astronomers" participate in what we call "urban guerrilla astronomy."
During the summers, we took at least three excursions with John to the Grand Canyon Star Party. There's not much in life to compare with spending eight or ten hours on the road with John. He would make the most interesting observations of the landscape around him, or sometimes just launch into a new puzzle for us. You could always count on something interesting from John when he would say, "Okay now I have to tell you a story ..."
His views of cosmology were certainly unorthodox, but they were based on a solid foundation and understanding of the physics, chemistry, and math involved. I didn't always agree with his views, but he never failed to give me a fresh perspective on physics and cosmology. He was a fan of Fred Hoyle and Halton Arp, a champion of the steady-state universe. You would often see him in a sweat-shirt that says "The Big Bang is a Thing of the Past," or a button saying "Nothing Doesn't Exist."
One of my favorite John quotes: "Anything that happens is natural. A battleship is just as natural as a pine tree."
And one last John story: We were on our way to the Bryce Canyon Star Party, and passed one of Utah's famous rock shops. He glanced out the window and said, "Oh look! Pieces of planet!" Yes, we spent an hour or so shopping there.
I once spent an interesting weekend in his company. He'd been born in Beijing, a walled city, and we took him via Chester on our way to North Wales. It was the first time he'd been in a walled city since his childhood. Walking near Llanberis, he found a Yew tree and enjoyed eating the berries. Still my photo of him on the Wikipedia page. Amazing guy, I hope his enthusiasm and inspiration lives on as his legacy.
He/She did better.
we were given the imagination to design and build the tools we needed.
I bought my first Dobsonian telescope when I was a kid. Last year, my wife bought me a beautiful 6-in reflector. I'll never forget the first time I saw Saturn's rings. There's nothing like seeing them "for real" right there in the sky above you. Thank you, John Dobson for opening up the sky!
He actually made a variety of telescope? I have heard of Dobsonian *mounts*, as opposed to telescopes. And yes, utterly commonplace to refer to a Dobsonian mounted reflector as a "Dob" and imply both the scope and mount. (Plus the mounting point must be attached to the tube, somehow, if not built onto the tube.) So I'm wondering if there's something other than the Dob mount that's being referred to here.
One thing most astronomers try to be is accurate. (Sayeth a fan of space for 40 years who just got his first telescope at Christmas.)
My stepdad, Leon Salanave, was one of the architects of the California Academy of Sciences' Morrison Planetarium.
He was a native San Franciscan and an enthusiastic local amateur astronomer, doing a stint as editor of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's magazine.
As a result of these affiliations I found myself, in 1973, at the age of perhaps 11, with my family - attending a weekend astronomical seminar, sponsored by the ASP, at the Sonoma Mission Inn - which included putting in a few hours helping Mr Dobson grind a lense for one of his giant sidewalk telescopes, several of which were present (they were built out of cardboard tubing found at the center of rolls of carpet, and glass blanks, which were sourced from military surplus glass portholes).
I recall we were also observing the Sun, with a huge telescope that required a stepladder to reach the eyepiece - one that was painted with a wild giraffe motif, if I recall correctly.
Mr Dobson used a large concave surface, with a bit of abrasive material at the center, and we all took turns moving the blank about, in a rhythmical and circular motion.
I remember asking if I was doing it right - he told me there was no wrong way to do it, because it would all even out, in the end. Which was really comforting. And empowering. Making a lense was something that anyone could do.
I had never been exposed to such a positive and rewarding educator of young minds before. I think it made an impact. He raised the bar.
Thank you, John.
I guess what surprises me, is how many people know Dobson.. or know of him.. I'd met him a few times over the years, and attended a couple of his classes at the Vedanta center in Hollywood. The man was always so nice, and some of his ideas about the cosmos are very much non-western in thought, and always fascinated me.
Its nice to see slashdot mention him.
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And I just started building my first, a 12" dob! Thanks John, RIP.
I have my 8" F6 over in the closet. Man, that simple mount, and the hole idea of "Make a telescope, what's the worst outcome? You're back where you started". Been planning on rebuilding the scope as a truss tube unit. Maybe in memory of John I'll do this over the next few weeks
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
While I no longer have a Dobsonian telescope.... to this day every Halloween for Trick or Treat instead of candy I setup my 14inch Celestron on the sidewalk in front of my house and "Treat" the kids and many parents to views of the night sky. Rest well John Dobson. Rest well.
...and thinking what no one else has thought.
John visited our science center years back, asked us for an old 8" floppy to tear apart and improve the mount action on our big DIY Dob. Signed it too. We also brought him to our mountaintop sundial that at 18' across is the "sun" for a 2" earth-scale solar system that goes out ~14 miles. We were pointing out the landmarks for the planets, and he started pacing. Dang. We figured we bored him with our little project. We asked him what was wrong. He said "Nothing - but watch this," He walked the diameter of the "sun" while counting "1..2..3..4.. See?! I can cross your sun's diameter in the same four seconds it takes light to travel the 865,000 mile diameter of the real sun - so on your model, walking is the scaled speed of light!" In ten years, a dozen of us had never thought of that. Bonus is when we have students do the annual bicycle "Tour de Solar System" on the local rail trails, we can tell them they're pedaling at warp 3 or whatnot...
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Another, probably apocryphal, story was John claimed to have star tested a scope using the glint of light off the eye of a blackbird, perched on a telephone wire down the street - really, really good telescope makers can identify the condition and quality of a mirror by studying the shape of the image from the scope just inside, and just outside focus.
Clear skies, John.
-- Humans, because the hardware IS the software.