John Dobson - A Side Walk Astronomer.

[Suzy]

In keeping with the birthday celebrations this week of John Dobson, who turned 96 on Sept. 14th, I thought I'd share this with you.

It's a movie called "Sidewalk Astronomer" and runs for 1hr 18min. Well worth the watch. The film takes us on sidewalk astronomy nights with Dobson, mirror making classes, bits of interviews he's done, and his own theory of how we got here. He has rather a brash attitude, but I find him funny and likeable all the same.

Many of us owe John Dobson a great deal of gratitude for bringing affordable & large apperture telescopes to the masses. He never patented his design and was not in it for the money- simply because he wanted as many people as possible to enjoy the universe. When he first started making mirrors in huge quantities, he used the windows off the ships and grinded them- he bought them in bulk quanities and incredibly cheap, enabling him to distribute many telescopes.
And just a little bit of trivia.. when Dobson travels, apparently he never stays in a hotel, preferring instead to stay with people. If I'm correct, I think Dennis Simmons here on this forum hosted him here in Qld back in '95, where he also attended the Queensland Astrofest.

I'm sure you'll enjoy this movie, hubby it seemed was hearing some of it and he piped up around the corner when I was watching it, and said it sounded interesting (he esp. liked his attitude ) and asked me to send him the link to his pc.

Okay, so here is the link...

A SIDE WALK ASTRONOMER


If you are interested in seeing more on John Dobson, may I recommended an interview conducted by Mike Simmonds from "Astronomers Without Borders". It's a goody! It goes for one hour and is played across five parts.
Here they are...

AWB Part 1
AWB Part 2
AWB Part 3
AWB Part 4
AWB Part 5

In part 2 at 10min 26 secs, my mind went for a spin with his theory on what defines a star and a planet, which in turn had me throwing a thread into the Science Forum last week for clarification.

Enjoy.

[Mliss (Mel)]

Thanks Suzy, can't wait to watch this!!!!

[astroron (Ron)]

Is it only on pc as I would never download that lot in a month of sundays

[Mliss (Mel)]

The links are for youtube Ron.

I'll see if I can find a copy of this for download, then i can send you a disc.

[Mliss (Mel)]

can't find a single person seeding this.

maybe someone knows if there is a way to snaffle the youtube clips

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Mliss

The links are for youtube Ron.

I'll see if I can find a copy of this for download, then i can send you a disc.

Thanks Mel
Cheers

[alexk13 (Alex)]

Originally Posted by Mliss

can't find a single person seeding this.

maybe someone knows if there is a way to snaffle the youtube clips

If you are using FireFox as your browser, then get this add-on
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
I use it all the time to grab videos from Youtube for my daugter (and occasionally some for me)

I'll be downloading this video to watch later too - watched a few minutes, and it looks good, but need more time to watch than I have right now.

[BPO]

Originally Posted by Mliss

can't find a single person seeding this.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0u9wm0...er.avi.torrent

maybe someone knows if there is a way to snaffle the youtube clips

I use an app called VideoCacheView. It works well.

[koputai (Jason)]

I saw this on the TV a year or so ago, I think it was on SBS. It's great, very well worth watching.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Greg Bock (Greg Bock)]

Thanks for that Suzy, watching the first bit of that brings back fond memories from long ago at Queensland Astrofest in 1995 when John Dobson spent time with us there.

John signed the mirror box of my 12" Dob, which has since been sold to Pat Pearl who re-painted the box white, but was careful to keep the signature untouched. That scope lives at Leyburn now.

It also reminded me of the times that Peter Marples and I spent between 1994 and 1996 busking at the Cavill Avenue mall in Surfer's Paradise doing exactly the same thing as John Dobson..showing the moon and planets to passing tourists through our 12" and 14" Dobs....fantastic times.

I'd love to download the video separately to Youtube, does anyone know if that's possible?

[that_guy (Tony)]

ahem great doco!

[Mliss (Mel)]

Originally Posted by BPO

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0u9wm0...er.avi.torrent

I use an app called VideoCacheView. It works well.

I tried that mediafire link, but it sat there for hours all sad and unconnected. I have downloaded videocacheview, but yet to give it a whirl. I will post any success. Greg, maybe you might have some luck with that prog too.

Thanks Alex, i'm almost tempted to try firefox if the above doesn't work.

Which reminds me, Sidewalk Astronomers are asking $49 on their website. If we all chipped in we could take turns

[Paul Haese]

John certainly has his own way of looking at things. Some of it I tend to think is difference of opinion and some of it looks pretty relevant.

He still seems pretty sharp for a person of his advanced years. It was interesting watching the main video and I will get to the others later.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by Greg Bock

It also reminded me of the times that Peter Marples and I spent between 1994 and 1996 busking at the Cavill Avenue mall in Surfer's Paradise doing exactly the same thing as John Dobson..showing the moon and planets to passing tourists through our 12" and 14" Dobs....fantastic times.

Greg, I would absolutely love to hear about it!
What were their reactons- did they need much coaxing? I noticed in Dobson's film, many of them needed to be coaxed to take a look.

Does anyone else have any stories or meetings with John Dobson to share? Would love to hear them!

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

John certainly has his own way of looking at things. Some of it I tend to think is difference of opinion and some of it looks pretty relevant.

He still seems pretty sharp for a person of his advanced years. It was interesting watching the main video and I will get to the others later.

Paul, oh my gosh, yes how incredibly sharp he is indeed.
In the second link- the AWB interview sees him being interviewed after his stroke. Despite some slurring and not as quick as he was in the movie- he's so SHARP - unbelievable!

Tony, am not surprised ... beating me to things as usual.

Mel, there keeping you busy.

[Greg Bock (Greg Bock)]

Yes Suzy, busking in Cavill Mall in the mid 90's with large telescopes was certainly alot of fun, and there were lots of stories as a result. Most people didn't need coaxing once they realised that they could see the moon closeup...there were so many different reactions, too numerous to mention here.

The funniest time was when Peter hired a silver space-suit complete with helmet to attract the passing tourists, he ended up with a line up of customers behind his 14" scope twice as long as mine on those two nights. (In fact, I still have the photo of him somewhere at home, standing beside the scope in his space-suit..wonder if I should find it and put it up here??)

As for the John Dobson video, I was hoping it was available from somewhere other than Youtube? Looks like it isn't?

[BPO]

Originally Posted by Greg Bock

As for the John Dobson video, I was hoping it was available from somewhere other than Youtube? Looks like it isn't?

The torrent link listed above will work (several people have already used it to download the 380 MB avi file), although I'm beginning to question the legality: the assumption was that the documentary was license-free, but apparently they charge for it on a website somewhere.

Does anybody know what the current copyright status is?

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

What an incredible guy ! Hope I have the same clarity of mind at his age. (I did manage to download the HD version, but it for my own use, want to watch it again) TY for posting the link Suzy

[stopusinmyid (Tammy)]

AWW . went to watch the youtube video and it's not available due to a copyright claim. should of watched it when i first read the post. i watched about 10 mins of it but then decided to go to bed as it was getting late

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by Suzy

Does anyone else have any stories or meetings with John Dobson to share? Would love to hear them!

I did a 3 hour interview with John in 1988 on behalf of Sky and Space magazine. It was in Sydney over lunch, at the restaurant of the motel at which he was staying. I think an astronomy club was sponsoring him to talk.
No one at Sky and Space had much knowledge about him but i had read all the S and T articles and had a good article on him in a copy of the Kalmbach Publishing Dobsonian book.

Sky and Space were going to transcribe the interview but 6 months later they told me the story would no longer be considered current . I pursued the tape but was eventually told it had been lost .

John was 73 at the time and had his 10 year old son with him.

I remember how humble he was. He could have ordered anything on the menu but chose a $4 entrée soup and asked the waiter for a glass of `intergalactic oxygen ' ( water ) - the waiter did not know what to think !

One thing that stood out in my mind was that he was not much interested in talking about telescopes nor seemed to have a lot of interest in them . they were just a means to an end for what he was really interested in - people seeing the Universe in which they lived. I did however coax him into some pretty interesting stuff on mirror making .

The story he told of how he had sired his son so late in life stuck in my mind.

He lived on the outskirts of San Francisco in accommodation owned by the University at which he taught telescope making classes. A visiting student had been sleeping on the couch in the room he ground mirrors in . A rattlesnake had made its way in , and John tossed it into the barrel on which he ground mirrors. The young lady could not cope with sleeping in the same room as a rattlesnake , and jumped into bed with John for safety. And 9 months later his son was born... This is how he told it to me- I'll probably never know if he was having a lend of me or not