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Originally Posted by Dog Star
Much more to him than just someone who developed a cheap particle board mount!
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He never advocated the use of particle board..that was the commercial manufacturers that started using that
I had lunch and a 3 hour interview with him in 1988. In true spirit of simplicity he chose a $4 pumpkin soup and asked the waiter for a glass of "intergalactic oxygen" ( H20 !). he could have had anything on the menu.He wasn't that interested in talking about telescopes, much more interested in talking cosmology.
I have a copy of his book " How and Why to Make a User Friendly Sidewalk Telescope" complete with 6mm plywood covers . The first 54 pages are a fascinating read being a biograghical history of himself, the sidewalk astronomers and their many visiits to National Parks in the 60's and 70's. He was an original hippy, living on a diet wild flowers and sleeping out doors inside the tube of the 24" F6.5 when there was no roof over his head.
He grew his hair down to his waist in the 1930's after deciding that money on hair cuts was a waste, and became a dancer in a dance troupe and then a monk for 25 years ago, before becoming swept up in the free expression and appreciation he recieved from the younger generations in the mid sixties in San Franscisco. He was just ahead of his time until then