John Dobson has died

[astroron]

Just seen this on face book from Celestron Telescopes.
John Dobson has gone to the great observatory in the sky .
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=741774462501976&set=a.215908461755248.59163.2109461 72251477&type=1
RIP John
Cheers

[h0ughy]

Sad news indeed - but on a brighter note look at the influence he made - probably not forgotten for a long time

[astroron]

Too True Dave, he brought the hobby of astronomy to the guy/girl in the street and also made it easier for the average person to own a reasonably large telescope for not a large financial outlay.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Lee]

RIP John. He was a true living legend....

[peterskye]

Having built a "Dobs" myself, & having seen the number of commercial "Dobsonians" available, it will be a long time before he will be forgotten. Certainly he will be remembered far beyond my lifetime. Vale John!

:thanx:
Peter

[gary]

He had a larger than life personality and he will be missed by amateur astronomers
the world over.

[inline_online]

That is indeed sad news for the astronomy community and also for the many thousands of the public that he reached.

[venus]

RIP John Dobson.
NYE I had some astronomy friends over and we watched a documentary on
this amazing individual, his love for astronomy really shined and the Dobson telescope will live on....

[big_dav_2001]

Sadly, I've just heard on the interwebs that John Dobson has passed away...

RIP to a true innovator and and a great loss to the world of Astronomy

Davin

[OzStarGazer]

Sorry to hear that... :( I certainly owe a lot to him (my scope is a Dobsonian).

PS: The Wikipedia says he died on January 15, 2015. If you have a Wikipedia account maybe you can correct that.

[PeterM]

Would love to be in earshot of the discussion John and the late Nick Williams are now having over the quality of Nicks old 6 inch dob mirror.....ahhhhh memories, both of you are sadly missed and never forgotten. RIP

[Larryp]

I remember meeting him when he first visited Australia, and he gave a talk at Sydney University one evening. He was certainly an engaging personality!

[astroron]

Peter,that was a sad time for Nick:(
As you say both are sadly missed. :sadeyes:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[GrahamL]

Sad news Ron :(.. what a lasting legacy he leaves to astronomy though :)

[astroron]

True Graham, Every time I use my 16," is his legacy. :)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[John K]

This is very sad indeed. RIP John Dobson.

22 years ago I remember reading an article about his telescope design together with the telescopes others had built using his principles and then building my own Dobsonian.

Interesting reading more about his life amd philosophy here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dobson_(amateur_astronomer)

[mr bruess]

John Dobson. his death is like a supernova explosion where his life temporarily outshines all others in achievements made to the telescope and astronomy.
Like a true monk he never patented or made money from his dobsonian design telescopes.He was truly about bringing astronomy to the masses and be cost effective as possible by using common everyday things to build telescopes.
he lived a very long life.

[RobF]

RIP great man.

[barx1963]

I have owned/built 4 Dobs now of various sizes and IMHO Johns idea is the greatest single boon to amateur visual astronomers in the last 100 years. That may be a big statement but his influence is undeniable when you go to a star party and virtually all he visual guys are using dobs.

RIP John Dobson

Malcolm

[manny]

R.I.P. John Dobson and thanks for the Dob.

[Ric]

Gone but never forgotten.

An amazing man.

[skysurfer]

Indeed a great man has gone. Brought the larger apertures affordable. Thanks to him many people can use a 20, 30 or 40cm or even larger aperture for an affordable price in the backyard.

And the first Dobsons ever build did exist long before John Dobson was even born: the 1.20m telescope of William Herschel and the 1.80m telescope of Lord Rosse. They were of virtually the same design.

[gaa_ian]

RIP John Dobson ..... If you ever saw the documentary on his life as I did his words "Come look at the Moon" echo in my mind. He was also a dedicated sidewalk astronomer, showing countless 1000's of people their 1st view of the night sky. A huge contribution to amateur astronomy & a life well lived !

[N1]

Met John very briefly after a talk he held here in Dunedin for the DAS 7 or so years ago. What an inspiring personality.

RIP John Dobson

[anthony.tony]

Hello We were Blessed in 2005 John Dobson Gave a Talk at our Parkes CWAS Meeting - Plus we had a Viewing Night with John.It was at The CSIRO Dish at Parkes.John Signed a couple of my Books - He also Signed My 10 inch Dobsonian - Reguard's Tony- For me It was a Dream Come true.

[Harb]

I wonder if that special they did on his sidewalk astronomy is stored somewhere on the net......might have a look around.

[icytailmark]

very sad news RIP Mr Dobson. You made great telescopes!!!

[mithrandir]

You can buy it from http://telescopepictures.com/buycontact/
There don't seem to be any torrent files for copies, and I could only find trailers on the net.

[Harb]

Thanks for finding that....

I think I will buy a copy......I seem to remember it was a very inspiring doco.

Cheers
John

[ZeroID]

He lives on in every scope made in his name, a great legacy.
RIP John

[JB80]

It has stayed with me ever since I was a lad and first saw it, even when I was not into astronomy I would always recall this doco and the urge to build a dob.
In fact it was probably conversation with my wife about just this that prompted her to get me a scope for my birthday and I haven't looked back since.

[erick]

His name will live on. I'm onto my third "Dobsonian" design of telescope. There are more in my future, I'm sure. Thank you John.

[AstroJunk]

I believe that the Dobsonian part of the system is simply the use of a Teflon (then nylon) on Formica bearing. It sounds trivial, but it absolutely changed the way that large amateur alt-az telescopes were made and they deservedly now all bear his name.

My JD story: I showed him live video of the Aussie night sky via the internet back in 2007 as part of a multinational webcast!

[Satchmo]

Also the use of thin ship porthole glass for mirror blanks was a huge innovation . Many of the scopes made in their classes were at least 12" or larger . Using anything but thick Pyrex was unheard of in those days. With the use of a simple plywood 9 and 18 point cells much larger mirrors came in 1" glass.

Apparently many many tons of surplus glass from the San Francisco ship yards was turned into telescopes. Many of these instruments turned up to star parties to fuel the aperture boom. This blew away the notion that `serious ' telescopes had to be made from thick expensive glass.

[Suzy]

The Sidewalk Astronomer movie has just been put on youtube.

Watch it asap as I don't know how long it'll stay there- last time someone put it up, it got removed.
It sure brings a tear & a smile to one's eye when the opening scene has John Dobson saying "come look at the moon, come look at the moon".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9V9TBi1WAc&noredirect=1

[bkm2304]

Vale, and thanks to the Big Dob.

:thanx::thanx::thanx:

[Glenhuon]

RIP John Dobson. I watched the interview with him and was much impressed by his "down to earth" approach to astronomy and his wish to share it to the wider population. BTW, I do have a copy of the interview on the HDD on this computer, will share it with anyone who wants it, big file though, so probably best to burn to a disc and post it.