

The astronomy community has lost a legend yesterday. John Dobson, the inventor of the Dobsonian telescope, passed away at the age of 98.
John Lowry Dobson (September 14, 1915 – January 15, 2014) was a populariser of amateur astronomy. He is most notable for being the promoter of a design for a large, portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope that bears his name, the Dobsonian telescope. The design is considered revolutionary since it allowed amateur astronomers to build fairly large telescopes. He was less known for his efforts to promote awareness of astronomy (and his unorthodox views of cosmology) through public lectures including his performances of “sidewalk astronomy.”