John Dobson passed away today :(

John Dobson, inventor of the "Dobsonian" telescope and popularizer of sidewalk astronomy, passed away this morning at age 98. I made an effort to invite him to come do a show with us here at GLP on TheRawFeedLive, but he was a hard man to reach in his later years and obviously he had not been in the best health.

Unfortunately the mainstream news media has not even taken notice of the loss, perhaps because he was considered "too eccentric" or perhaps "not important enough." Whatever the reason, I can not find a single article mentioning his passing today, only forum posts on astronomy forums I frequent and an update in his wikipedia page. I heard about it through an email (yes, from an "uncle," Uncle Rod to be exact; [link to uncle-rods.blogspot.com] - he'll probably mention it in his next blog post).

John Dobson was probably as important to popularizing amateur astronomy as Carl Sagan. Though he did not share the kind of fame Sagan had, and though his cosmological ideas were certainly unique, his influence on the hobby will be felt for generations after his passing today. Many amateur astronomers have used his telescope design, and many continue his tradition of "sidewalk astronomy," yours truly included.

To give you some idea of how Dobsonians completely changed the landscape of telescope ownership, back when John Dobson started teaching classes on how to build your own Dobsonian telescope, a 6" newtonian Dynascope on an equatorial mount would run about $195.
[link to philharrington.net]
Now, in 1963, that was a LOT of money. That works out to about $1,485.24 in today's dollars. Today, you can buy a mass-produced 6" Dobsonian style Newtonian for a mere $300 or so.
[link to www.optcorp.com]
And of course, if you're willing to build it yourself and grind your own mirror like Dobson did, you can save even more money. His design drastically lowered the cost and/or skill required to build and own a large, powerful telescope.

The Dobsonian telescope is made up of elements that have existed for hundreds of years, but he applied them in a new way to create an instrument that is affordable and easy to build. A classic Dobsonian is really just a Newtonian reflector placed upon a wooden turntable with a rocker box. It's simple, but that's what makes it affordable and easy to build, even at home. Dobson would teach classes on how to build them, and he would use them for public outreach on the sidewalks of San Fransisco. In fact, he liked to refer to his own design as the "sidewalk telescope."

Here's a brief message from Dobson in his own words, good words for all amateur astronomers to follow:


Here's an interview with John from 1994:


Rest in peace John, you'll be missed.