John Dobson (astronomer)
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John Lowry Dobson (14 September 1915 – 15 January 2014) was an American
amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...
and is best known for the
Dobsonian telescope A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. Dobson's telescopes featured a simplified ...
, a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope. He was also known for his efforts to promote awareness of astronomy (and his unorthodox views of
physical cosmology Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of f ...
) through public lectures including his performances of " sidewalk astronomy". Dobson was also the co-founder of the amateur astronomical group, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers.


Biography

Dobson was born to Methodist missionary parents in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, but moved with his family back to the U.S. as a young child. He was a “belligerent atheist” as a young man. After earning a masters in chemistry, he encountered a teacher of a
Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
monastic order, which seeks to integrate
Veda FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Co ...
-based religious precepts with rational inquiry, and joined the order, where he served as a
Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
n monk for 23 years. After leaving the order (in part because the time he surreptitiously dedicated to building telescopes did not meet the approval of the leader of the order's
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
monastery) he became an itinerant popularizer of
amateur astronomy Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...
and sidewalk astronomy. In his later life, Dobson resumed regular association with a branch of the
Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
order in southern California, but continued to dedicate most of his time to promoting public astronomy.


Early life and education

Dobson was born in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. His maternal grandfather was the missionary Hiram Harrison Lowry, his mother was a musician, and his father taught
zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
at a university. He and his parents moved to
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 1927. His father accepted a teaching position at Lowell High School and taught there until the 1950s. Dobson spent 23 years in a
monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, after which he became more active in promoting astronomy. As a teen, Dobson became a "belligerent"
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
. He described his state of mind at that time: : "I could see that these two notions cannot arise in the same being: 'do unto others as you would that they do unto you' and 'if you're not a good boy, it's into hell for keeps.' ... They must be spoofing us. So I became an atheist – a belligerent atheist. If anybody started a conversation about the subject, I was a belligerent atheist." Over time Dobson became interested in the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
and its workings. He earned a masters
degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...
in
chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1943, working in
E. O. Lawrence Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation fo ...
's lab.


Time at the monastery

In 1944 he attended a lecture by a
Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
n swami. Dobson said the swami “revealed to him a world he had never seen.” That same year Dobson joined the
Vedanta Society Vedanta Societies refer to organizations, groups, or societies formed for the study, practice, and propagation of Vedanta, the ancient religion based on the Vedas. More specifically, they "comprise the American arm of the Indian Ramakrishna move ...
monastery in San Francisco, becoming a
monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
of the
Ramakrishna Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...
Order. “One of John's responsibilities at the monastery was to reconcile astronomy with the teachings of Vedanta. That job led him to build telescopes on the side. He took to wheeling them around outside the monastery, fascinating the neighbors who would congregate around him.” Dobson's interest in telescope building was in part to better understand the universe, and in part to inspire in others a curiosity about the cosmos. To this end, he often offered assistance and corresponded about his work with those outside the monastery.
Amateur telescope making ''Amateur Telescope Making'' (''ATM'') is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at ''Scientific American''. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and obser ...
was not part of the curriculum at the monastery, however, and much of his correspondence was written in
code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
so as to attract less attention. For instance, a telescope was referred to as a " geranium", which is a type of flower. A "potted geranium" referred to a telescope in a tube and rocker, while a "geranium in bloom" referred to a telescope whose
mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
was now aluminized. Eventually Dobson was given the option of ceasing his telescope building or leaving the order. He chose to stop building telescopes so that he could remain at the monastery. But one day another monk wrongly accused him as missing and reported him to the head swami. Dobson was expelled in 1967. However, he maintains that the accusation was not the true reason for his expulsion. The true reason, he contends, was a result of a misunderstanding. The head swami read a paper that was presumed written by Dobson, that contradicted the reconciliation of science with Vedanta, and the swami thought Dobson had rejected the swami's teaching.


Amateur astronomy

Having left the order in 1967, Dobson in 1968 co-founded the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, an
amateur astronomy Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...
organization that aims to popularize astronomy among people on the street, along with Bruce Sams and Jeffery Roloff. Sams had built a large telescope but because at the time he was only age 12, he was not eligible for membership in the only local club – the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers – thus the “San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers” was founded. It was also at this time that Dobson's simple form of telescope – which came to be known as the
Dobsonian A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. Dobson's telescopes featured a simplified ...
– became well known after he started teaching classes to the public on how to make your own telescope. He was later asked to speak at the
Vedanta Society of Southern California ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
, and continued to spend two months there each year teaching telescope and cosmology classes. He spent two more months at his home in San Francisco, and spent most of the rest of each year traveling as an invited guest for astronomical societies, where he spoke about telescope building, sidewalk astronomy, and his views of cosmology and the scientific establishment.


Amateur cosmology

Dobson claimed the
Big Bang model The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
did not hold up to scrutiny, and instead advocated a
non-standard cosmology A non-standard cosmology is any physical cosmological model of the universe that was, or still is, proposed as an alternative to the then-current standard model of cosmology. The term ''non-standard'' is applied to any theory that does not confo ...
; a “recycling”
Steady State model In cosmology, the steady-state model, or steady state theory is an alternative to the Big Bang theory of evolution of the universe. In the steady-state model, the density of matter in the expanding universe remains unchanged due to a continuous ...
of the universe, where matter in the universe is forever expanding outward, but matter also “recycles” over time via
quantum tunneling In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...
. In an essay entitled, “''Origins''”, Dobson also argued that such a universe could allow for life to be ubiquitous and ever-present.


Honours

In 2004, the Crater Lake Institute presented Dobson with its Annual Award for Excellence in Public Service for pioneering sidewalk astronomy in the national parks and forests, “where curious minds and dark skies collide”. In 2005, the Smithsonian magazine listed Dobson as among 35 individuals who have made a major difference during the lifetime of that periodical.


Death

Dobson died while in Providence / Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California on January 15, 2014. He was 98.


Promotion of astronomy


The Dobsonian telescope

Dobson's most enduring legacy is the refinement and promotion of a design for a large, portable, low-cost
reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
, now known as the "Dobsonian telescope". The design is a very simple, low cost alt-azimuth mounted
Newtonian telescope The Newtonian telescope, also called the Newtonian reflector or just a Newtonian, is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton, using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton' ...
that employs common materials such as
plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
,
formica ''Formica'' is a genus of ants of the family Formicidae, commonly known as wood ants, mound ants, thatching ants, and field ants. ''Formica'' is the type genus of the Formicidae, and of the subfamily Formicinae. The type species of genus ''For ...
, PVC
closet flange {{Unreferenced section, date=May 2021 In plumbing, a closet flange (also known as a toilet flange) is a pipe fitting (specifically, a type of flange) that both mounts a toilet to the floor and connects the closet bend to a drain pipe. The name ...
s, cardboard construction tubes, recycled porthole glass, and indoor-outdoor carpet. This type of simplified altazimuth mount has since been commonly referred to as a "Dobsonian mount" in amateur astronomical circles. Its construction method makes the typical Dobsonian telescope portable, inexpensive, very stable, and easy to manufacture, while revolutionizing the sheer size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers, with optical diameters unheard of before their appearance. The design is named after Dobson because he is credited for being the first person to have combined all these construction techniques in a single telescope design. Dobson himself was reluctant to take credit, pointing out that he built it that way because it was all he needed. In his own words, he joked that he was "too retarded" to build a telescope with a more sophisticated equatorial telescope mount. With its simplicity of construction and use, the Dobsonian has become a very popular design today, particularly for large amateur telescopes. The
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Na ...
, in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, uses a Dobsonian telescope in the museum's public observatory, alongside other solar telescopes.


Sidewalk astronomers

Dobson co-founded the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers in coordination with two other people, having cheaply constructed several telescopes that were easy to use, including a telescope that was built for approximately US$300. Rather than have regular meetings, the organization simply set up telescopes on the sidewalk during clear evenings, offering to show and explain the night sky to people passing by. The telescope which Dobson used most frequently on the streets of San Francisco, was a classic 9 inch aperture Dobsonian, with a typical porthole-glass mirror of outstanding optical quality, made by one of his own students in a mirror making class. This telescope was portable enough that it could be taken by Dobson from his residence to many busy street corners in San Francisco, using the city's Muni public transportation. Appropriately nicknamed "Tumbleweed", since it traveled randomly about to numerous public observing locations, this 9 inch telescope is now shared among many astronomy clubs and organizations around the world, allowing people everywhere to observe the heavens with such an iconic instrument, just as Dobson would have wished. Unexpectedly, the Sidewalk Astronomers were invited to the 1969
Riverside Telescope Makers Conference The RTMC Astronomy Expo was one of the major gatherings of amateur astronomers in the United States. History Founded by Clifford W. Holmes and the Riverside Astronomical Society, the RTMC Astronomy Expo began in 1969 as the Riverside Telescope M ...
(
Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...
). The Dobsonian telescope brought by the Sidewalk Astronomers was unconventional, because most telescopes at such meetings tended to be smaller, on equatorial mounts, and designed for
astrophotography Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it was no ...
rather than optical viewing. Surprisingly (and controversially at the time) Dobson's telescope tied in first prize for best optics. It was also awarded the runner up prize for mechanics, despite the mechanics of the telescope and its mount being exceptionally simple. Sidewalk Astronomers has since become a prominent organization, recognized for its taking of astronomy to the public via " sidewalk astronomy". The current organization has members throughout the world, and continues to promote public service astronomy by putting telescopes on street corners in urban areas. Members of the organization also visit national parks giving slide show presentations, providing telescope viewing, and explaining the universe.


Publications by John Dobson

A 1991 book by Dobson & Sperling on telescope-making helped popularize what came to be known as the Dobsonian mount, and treats the ''why'' as being as important as the ''how''. It covers Dobson's background and his philosophy on astronomy and the universe, and his belief in the importance of popular access to astronomy for proper appreciation of the universe. Dobson has also published two books on cosmology.


John Dobson in the media

Dobson's life and ideas are the subject of the 2005 documentary ''
A Sidewalk Astronomer ''A Sidewalk Astronomer'' is a 2005 documentary film about former Vedanta monk and amateur astronomer John Dobson. The film follows Dobson to state parks, astronomy clubs, and downtown streets as he promotes awareness of astronomy through his own ...
''. He was also featured in the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
series ''The Astronomers'', and appeared twice on ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
''. Dobson also appears as one of the speakers in ''Universe: The Cosmology Quest'', a documentary about non-standard cosmological theories.


See also

*
List of astronomical instrument makers The following is a list of astronomical instrument makers, along with lifespan and country of work, if available. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V ...
* 18024 Dobson


References


External links

* – This website formerly included John Dobson's official lecture schedule. * * – main page * – Papers and articles written by John Dobson * * — A film about Astronomy, Cosmology and John Dobson * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, John 1915 births 2014 deaths American Hindus Converts to Hinduism from atheism or agnosticism Amateur astronomers University of California, Berkeley alumni