Image of the Month

Meeting an astronomy icon: John Dobson. In 1994 my local club, The Astronomical Society of Kansas City, hosted the annual national convention of the Astronomical League, the nationwide association of astronomy clubs. I was on our club's program committee, and was ecstatic when I learned that John Dobson had accepted my invitation to be a speaker at our convention! During the convenion, we hosted a star party for attendees, held at our club observatory. This is a picture of John and I standing next to a member's home-built "Dobsonian" telescope...the design that John pioneered. Sadly, John passed away in 2014, but he was a true icon in our hobby, and his "Dobsonian" telescope design revolutionized our hobby by making large aperture reflectors readily available to the average amateur. He was a very intriguing individual to visit with, and his personal theories on cosmology were unusual, to say the least!  It was a highlight for me to have spent time with him!