Crap - R.I.P. John Dobson
From
Sky and Telescope:
John Dobson, 1915�2014
A simple notice appeared yesterday on the website of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers: "It is with heavy hearts that we must report the passing of John Dobson. He died peacefully this morning, Wednesday, January 15th, in Burbank, California. He was 98 years old. He leaves behind a son, numerous close friends, and fans and admirers worldwide."
Ever since emerging from obscurity in 1968, when he left his order of Vedantan monks and founded the SFSA with students Bruce Sams and Jeff Roloff, Dobson has been a force of nature in amateur astronomy. He'll be remembered most for his novel approaches to making low-cost, large-aperture reflectors. The key was a simple, alt-azimuth wooden mount that anyone could build. Today millions of stargazers worldwide use these Dobsonian telescopes to sweep the nighttime sky.
98 is a good run! His telescope design is pure genius -- it is for observational use only, there is no built-in tracking so photography is out. That being said, this allows you to use a much larger aperture than could be done economically with a conventional mount. This gives a lot more light gathering so your seeing is better.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for
Dobsonian Telescope.
Posted by DaveH at January 16, 2014 9:51 AM