John Dobson
| John Dobson | |
|---|---|
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| Sex | M |
For other persons named John, see John.
John Lowry Dobson was a real person, born September 14, 1915, died January 15, 2014. The New York Times obituary is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/science/space/john-dobson-dies-at-98-taught-art-of-stargazing.html
John is credited with pioneering simple telescope designs, the most successful of which is called the Dobsonian telescope. It is a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope.
Dobson's life and ideas were the subject of the 2005 documentary A Sidewalk Astronomer (1h 19m). A five minute excerpt is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUeaM_LqS9A.
John was also featured in the PBS series The Astronomers, and appeared twice on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. A two minute exerpt is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQuLw3hfUwE.
More information on John can be found on Wikipedia here: John_Dobson_(astronomer), plus there are a number of John Dobson related videos on youtube.
In the Spearfish Lake Tales universe Mark and Jackie Gravengood meet John in 1971 at the annual Texas Star Party, one of the largest dark sky viewing parties in the USA.
The Texas Star Party is a real event, and is held annually in late April or in May near the time of new moon. This wiki has a page for the Texas Star Party, and it contains a number of useful links.
