John Dobson died

Today I read in the newspaper that John Dobson] died on January, 15, 98 years old.
He is the designer of the ‘Dobsonion]’, a simple and cheap construction for a Newtonian telescope. It is only for two days that I used my ‘table-top Dobsonian’ for the first time to look at Venus, to actually see that it looks like a very small moon crescent. (Hey, I have that telescope only for two years now, and from my home I can only see the ‘morning star’…)
He was an advocate of Sidewalk astronomy].
So what can I do else then to link this picture, in his honour.

He surely wasn’t a pure naturalist as you can read in Wikipedia. But at least he was very active in stimulating the fascination for astronomy to other people, so we should forgive him for that…

When I did a lot of amateur astronomy several years back my favorite telescope design was Dobsonian. It’s great to have a huge light-bucket like that to see deep sky objects, at a fraction of the price of one with a complex mount, etc. They’re not useful for astrophotography, but for just seeing the wonders of the night sky, nothing is better.

I always wanted to build one of these but never got around to it. I did get to use a Dobsonian though a few years back when we won a night of stargazing with a teacher from our elementary school who had built a 12 inch Dobsonian. It was a real treat seeing Jupiter and Saturn through it after spending my adolescence using only a 3 inch reflector for years.

Dobson, Mr. Sidewalk Astronomer.
I met him up at Glacier Point in Yosemite in the mid 70s.
He’s the dude that blew me away with the revelation that we are star dust.
I was already on my journey, but he sure did add more wonder to it.
He shall live forever in the hearts of many thousands who’s awareness of the universe he enhanced.
98 years, not a bad run.
You know, once I read where someone did a study of longevity of various scientists
and concluded it was the astronomers who lived the longest.

98 years, not a bad run. You know, once I read where someone did a study of longevity of various scientists and concluded it was the astronomers who lived the longest.
Well if you have spent ay time doing astronomy you know that the best observing conditions occur on cold winter nights. Maybe all that time in the cold preserves them ;-)

Thank you Mr. Dobson. You helped make the world a better place.

Well if you have spent ay time doing astronomy you know that the best observing conditions occur on cold winter nights. Maybe all that time in the cold preserves them ;-)
I would guess it hardens them.
Well if you have spent ay time doing astronomy you know that the best observing conditions occur on cold winter nights. Maybe all that time in the cold preserves them ;-)
I would guess it hardens them. Yea and I hear it was kinda hard heating those observatories ;-) , didn't help much they were all up on mountain tops http://www.catchersofthelight.com/catchers/post/2012/07/23/Astrographs-Photographic-Astronomical-Telescopes-History-of-Astrophotography.aspx