Transcript:
7:15 p.m..Terry Mann – Astronomical League Door Prizes
[Music]
message so David I I decided to go ahead and start celebrating the uh to do an
7:35 p.m..Sybella Burlingame - A Young Astronomer's Presentation of John Dobson
annual thing celebrating John Dobson's birthday I thought that would be a lot of fun very good idea you know I totally
I think that's a wonderful idea no I me I guess Donnie you would
7:45 p.m..Peggy Walker - Who was John Dobson
know this does anybody else do an event around John Dobson's birthday not this year not that I know
7:55 p.m..Roundtable Conversation
of sometimes trying to see who is
8:05 p.m..Donna Smith - The beginnings of the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers
this and Frank where is Kim
Frank what okay what
8:20 p.m..Andy Ponieros - Telescope Making and Stellafane
is actually no today is I
so around the time but it's not the same hi Rick
8:45 p.m..Garth Elliassen - John Dobson Teaching in Oregon
hello so we have two things running here because the
presentation's on a laptop and our participation is on an iPad okay
9:00 p.m..David Fey
yeah a lot of people do that they'll have they'll have two different computers one for presentation one for
you know talking head and then uh they might have a third computer uh where they're watching the program but if
you're watching the program in the simoc cast you want to turn all the audio audio off otherwise you get into this
9:20 p.m..Barry Peckham - Building Telescopes and Stargazing with John Dobson
Echo Loop nope it's off now because I got them both logged in there's no Echo so
good yeah I've been there done that my girls
9:30 p.m..Peggy Walker - Tumbleweed the Dobsonian Solar Telescope
laugh at me every Sunday on our family call
9:40 p.m..Roundtable Discussion
yeah okay now this is a um this is an educational Outreach type of program you
guys are all uh you're doing this for the Outreach part of this I know and so if
9:50 p.m..Ten Minute Break
you belong to if you're a Facebook uh member uh
10:00p.m..Maria Berbeo (Dobson's Biographer) - Stories told by John Dobson
uh or you know there's any way that you can share uh the program that's how
that's how we get more people to watch it yeah so right now we have people from the Philippines watching we have uh
10:10p.m..Alex Sahagun and Bill Scott - John Dobson's Time at the Vedanta Society
people from East Texas we have people from the United Arab Emirates watching
um uh so you get you're getting you're getting a global audience right at the
10:20p.m..Dean Kettleson - John Dobson at the Grand Canyon
top and um the more we share the more viewers get exposed to this after we run
10:30p.m..Ken Frank - Dobson in San Francisco and Yosemite
the program then uh you know I continue to do things to share the replay um but
10:40p.m..Dennis Svechkarev - John Dobson in the Ukraine
uh you know this is John Dobson did so much I mean he gave his whole life to
outreach in in astronomy and uh is trying to expose people to the uh to the
10:50p.m..Randall Meyers - John Dobson in Italy and his film "The Cosmology Quest"
universe and uh to make them think you know to help them understand their place
and in their world and their universe and how it all fits and
11:00p.m..Sergey Karpov - Dobson in Siberia
so um yeah I think that we're I think it's great that you're all
here so special thanks to Donna Smith are
11:10p.m..Carol D'Antonio - With Dobson in Vermont
putting it all together oh thank you hopefully most of these people will show
11:20p.m..Zoungy Kligge - The Influence of John Dobson
up thanks very much Donna thank you thank you for coming and and Rick and
Dean I appreciate it thank Scott very much hey I'm just I'm just plugging in
11:30p.m..Ten Minute Break
the the wires you know so
11:40p.m..After Party
okay I'm gonna start sharing the I'm gonna start sharing it um sharing it to friends of San group I don't know how
you want to show that is the that's the it's here
right but I mean because it's this way not this way yeah doesn't matter because
it's just a it's a form that they can see because they're going to be able to go read it you want them to go to the
website and look at
it
we are about to see Terry man that's right hello
Terry good to see you good to see you
too yeah we have a big big show tonight Scotty's gonna tell you all about it in nine minutes nine minutes that's
right what does that mean hey look we got I got to turn off
the background I can figure out how to do
that now I don't understand the timing on
this there now there's some dosoni and telescopes behind us
yes we've got a lot of them it's kind of one
here is it Mr there's actually a couple of groups on Facebook that's dedicated
to John Dobson you know one is a astrophotography
group nice and one is a just a t
hey Andy how are you doing I had to unmute here yeah I'm doing fine how are you good good good
good good it's been a while I know like 2017
yeah Mexican restaurant in Casper yeah
Donna can you hear me yes I can okay I'm just testing this out I think this is
probably how I'll do this later on tonight okay great all right I'll hop on
with the with the speaker oh that's good that's good I mean even if you can't do
the the video part you know yeah I think it might overwhelm the Broadband that we have here so okay all righty well yes
stay as long as you can okay you want I'm I'm on and I'm
listening thank you yeah
sure har is going to tell us about um the astronomical League gathering on
Friday coming up it's going to be a lot of fun very interesting good speakers
maybe good speakers not all of them are good some of them are pretty bad but they'll be speakers stereo
[Laughter] speak yeah David you'll be joining us won't you those who Jo bet yes oh yeah I
will be there good we look forward to that thank you me
too and I think Scotty will be there too he better be I just might go yeah
h
feel
Happ
I can't take you tomorrow because Scotty wants toh talk
to me in Latin Latin this time yes lauram ipsum is what I'm going to
talk in oh lauram Ipson Lauren
Ipson well that's why I can't take to the doctor tomorrow because of Laura
msum yes exactly we have to resolve this in 29
seconds oh boy hey Scott did you get the video my dad sent link to log in did I sure did
Sabella okay good let me send it to you again right now hold on I somehow sense that you're going to
need it no that's great it's
[Music]
good okay I just sent to get it just log in has the log credential they wanted to
give me an award for public service and astronomy for the at the East Bay that's in Oakland East Astronomical Society in
Oakland and if they're going to give you an award they're going to sweet talk to you in front of the crowd so they're
sweet talking me the dobsonian revolution the dobsonian revolution I
got up and said that all the revolutions were run with the Cannons on dobsonian
Mount I love [Music]
that well hello everybody this is Scot Roberts from the uh explor Alliance and
from explore scientific and it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you to the celebration of John Dobson's birthday um
uh and uh I'm not sure exactly how how how old he would be today but uh um he
passed on in uh n uh 2014 born in 1915
he lived a very long life and devoted most of his adult life to astronomy and
education astronomy and showing people the universe and so uh today we have
with us many of the people from uh that was associated with John Dobson knew
John Dobson uh was involved in his group the sidewalk astronomers um and so uh I
am going to um I'm going to start this program with uh a some some poetry and
some words of wisdom from David Levy uh and uh and then we'll transition to
Donna Smith who uh who is our special guest host and arrange this whole
program so uh put on your seat belts we're going to have a lot of fun uh and
um hopefully embody the spirit of of John Dobson himself so David I'm going
to turn it over to you well thank you Scott and welcome I'd like to add my welcome to this um star This Global star
party and during which we celebrate a very dear friend normally you you know there's an
adage that says you can't judge a book by its cover this one you can this is the cover of a book that I
am showing you that's the back cover wow and then I'm going to show you the front
cover and uh why can you judge this book by its cover because the cover is
plywood uh Norm Sperling published this book about how on why to make a user
friendly zalk telescope the interesting part of the of the title is why of
course there's some I don't think it's in in press anymore but it has some
golden things in it for example two letters from Charles Federer then the
editor of sky and Telescope explaining why he would not publish John Dobson's
early material about making a sidewalk telescope saying that it is uh is pretty
stupid and it's never going to fly that's not the way to make a
telescope and uh however just in case I'm going to send it along to our gleanings editor and if he if you don't
hear from him then that means he agrees with me anyway John didn't hear from him
my first first met John in 1973 74 when I was at the uh in San Francisco
and I went to the museum there and I saw John and his group with one of their
large large telescopes looking at the sun they're large now known as dobsonian
telescope and uh we became really good friends years later when I was giving a
lecture in Seattle it was around the time of um sheaker le9 and I was giving
a lecture in Seattle about why it was important to love the night sky I don't
know why any of you would think that I would have anything to say about that but I was giving a talk about
that and John happened to be in the audience and what sealed our friendship
was that after I finished saying that it is more important almost than anything
to stop what you're doing look up at the night sky and see the big picture at
this point John stood up from his chair came up to me and gave me a big Embrace
and that sealed our friendship I'm going to read you a poem
now and I just I just told Scotty that this poem is going to take me 24 hours
and 37 minutes to read and it turns out I'm going to read it a little faster than that because 24 hours and 37
minutes happens to be rotation period of the planet Mars and we're not on Mars
and Mars doesn't have the internet although actually it does have the internet now and even has the
helicopter anyway but the poem that I'm going to read to you is in honor and memory of John
doson it is written by Alfred noise and it comes from his famous poem Watchers
of the Scot and he wrote these lines at the opening ceremony of the 100 inch
telescope at Mount Wilson and Scott you and I have been there at the 100 inch
telescope yes so here goes tomorrow night so wrote their Chief
we try our great new telescope the 100 inch your Milton's optic tube has grown
in power since Galileo famous blind and old talked with him in that prison of
the sky we creep to Power by injes Europe trusts for giant for he
still even tonight our own old 60 has its work to do and now our 100 inch I
hardly dare to think what this new muzzle of ours may find thank you and
back to you Scot thank you very much thank you well I love that um you know
and and uh you know I I hope that all of you uh who are watching tonight uh if
you never had the chance to meet John doson I hope that you get some feeling about who the man is uh maybe some some
understanding of what made him tick um and uh you know the uh and I and I hope
that the spirit of John Dobson moves you um as he has many of us so Donna I'm
going to turn this over to you I I'm a little bit embarrassed Donna um I
although I've known you for several years okay we we I think we maybe got to
meet face Toof face um before Starlight Festival but I
don't know a lot about your background I know you've been very involved with sidewalk astronomers I know that you
knew John do Dobson extremely well uh spent many years uh uh working with him
supporting him uh uh but uh what what more can you tell us about yourself
Donna not much not much no I was just done some amazing
things you have I was just um an amateur astronomer and not a very good one and I
bought a dobsonian telescope and I needed help and I went to the observatory because some of the
sidewalk astronomers are there and John thought my telescope
needed a new Mount and they were so nice they just they wouldn't take any money or anything so then they said can you do
this Library program with this we need another telescope and it just seemed like every night I was doing astronomy
and then after a couple of years John called me one day and said can you do my schedule and I said yes and then I got
off the phone and thought Oh my God I think that's how he makes a living if I don't schedule him he'll have no money
and um I called Bill Scott and I'm like where's John supposed to go and and I
remember I said he told me he's going to some Valley and we didn't know if it's analou Valley or Apple Valley we just
started calling every single Club going are you having John Dobson this year no do you want him and from there you know
it just kind of took off and then internationally honestly if I wanted to go somewhere I just start calling people
and saying if they wanted John and of course they did so sure and I got to go places yeah it seems like John Dobson
went around the world uh talking about uh you know his life uh uh his um you
know the importance of exposing people to the universe uh and uh you know I
mean he had the whole package he was making the telescopes he was um uh you
know he was uh getting people engaged thinking about their place in the
universe and um and that but he had UniQue Ideas you know he had unique
ideas and uh um and a big part was getting people to share you know not
just you know um like when we went to Russia the kids the first thing they wanted to do was show him the first
thing they would do in their Club is build a scope and they had you know his design and the first thing they wanted
to do was show him their telescope and the first first thing he wanted to say was do you take it out so you know it
was it worked it was just kind of symbiotic because you know they were getting what they needed and he was
getting a chance to push them further yeah right yeah I had I had a
couple of experiences with John Dobson myself one was uh getting a letter from
John Dobson at me instruments where I was working and we had just started selling dobsonian telescopes we were
calling them dobsonians and I get this long letter from John Dobson telling me uh telling
us uh all the things that we had done wrong with the design and that uh you know it shouldn't be called a Dobson in
anyways and that he didn't want it to you know he didn't want a telescope named after him and uh
so I was uh I was a little bit surprised at the letter I wish I had kept it um I
think I told you the story um but I did write him back and I told him it was quite impossible for us to call it
anything else because that was the industry name for this type of telescope you know in all of its
variations um so uh I told you you you were redeemed because well he didn't
like the mount much because it varied from his he really loved I had a meet he really loved my mirror oh he did okay
that's good yeah that's the main telescope I still use and there were so many times he would just say like well
like with the focuser well she has that stupid thing on there but she's got a really good
mirror now his focuser was like a maybe a paper tube pushing in and out or something like that humming pipe and
toilet paper roll and you know for the first two years when he would come I would take mine off and put his back on
and after about the third year I'm like just leave it you know just leave it right right so I think I told you
earlier when when I went up to get help at the obser at the observatory I really knew nothing and I had a dob sonian but
after buying it I really didn't think about anything more than it was a reflector right so there's this old guy
and he's running around and people are like going that John Dobson and it took about three or four weeks and I'm like
does he have something to do with my telescope being called a dobsonian and everybody's like yeah and
I'm like okay well I don't I don't you know I just thought he was kind of a grumpy old guy that amazing though you
needed help on your telescope and the one guy you go to is John Dobson yeah that you know so I that was just kind of
meant to be that's very um but by then you know I know a lot of times people
would be very solicitous to John overly so right and I I said I never kind of
had that because I didn't know who he was until I already knew him yeah and and then like he was having a telescope
making Workshop here at a guy's house and one of the girls that worked for me she's kind of mouthy she was going to
make a telescope and he's like you're never gonna get done you got to push harder come on what are you doing here
get with it and she's like stop yelling at me and he's like push harder maybe
I'll quit yelling and she goes well quit yelling and maybe I'll push harder and you know every year when he came I would
pick him up and he would say how's Carla and I thought so many people he can't
remember their name that he never yeah so that's cool that was very
cool well uh uh Donna I'm going to turn this program over to you uh again I want
to thank you for bringing in all of your uh presenters uh and um uh you know
we're we're going to take um I'll remind you when we take breaks um and uh
hopefully uh those of you that are presenting can keep the pace up because
we've got a lot of presenters um and although it's it's early now it gets it
can get late and so yeah well I figure if some of the guys can't make it you
guys can always come back on and do something else if you want to that's right we always got next year we are going to celebrate this thing every year
later tonight you want to hang around and you got more to say you're welcome there's a lot to talk about with John
Dobson so I'll let you I'll let you have it from here on out uh thank
okay thank you scottt thanks for having us okay so we're gonna start with um Rick and Peggy Walker they're from the
Broken Arrow sidewalk astronomers and Peggy is going to just give us a little overview of John who he
was okay well I didn't come into this meaning John Till much like 200 well
International year of astronomy and so um but with hooking up with Dono I wound
up compiling a lot of the stories and articles that people put together so what I'm just going to show you is this
short bio on John and it's on the website so if you want to read it in
more detail you're free to do so and anyway so we're going to um um he was
called the pie Piper of astronomy he wound up actually um how can I
go so he had a lot of names uh MacGyver and all that but uh John basically made
things out of recycled things like you know my Guyer saved the world with gum and a paperclip well John did the same
thing with telescopes but what I did not know about John was that after the Civil War his grandparents were went into the
uh Methodist missionary um Episcopal church and they were sent to China and that is why John
was born in Beijing and so you can see a picture here of the Beijing University here's the actual picture of the whole
family and uh the mother was uh a person who taught music and the dad
was did a lot of these philosophy and did um zoology so they were a very very
educated family and so when they were there in um India I mean China things
kind of started to sour they had the the Communist versus the Nationalist and
they had to flee basically for their for their safety so what they did was they decided to move um because there was
some bombardment and stuff going on at night so they wound up moving to San Francisco and so he wound up going to
the low high school which his dad found up uh teaching it and so they lived like
off a 37th and gate um but what this whole um article I have is kind of done
on a little bit of a of a thread a you know done by time so um we have pictures
we still want to add more to but anyway so uh this one he when he gets there he's now all of the kids get their
degrees from Berkeley California so the whole family very well educated but he
Encounters this monastic life mainly because you know having a degree in chemistry what were the jobs at that
time well to to go to war and be a war you know whatever and he just this just wasn't who he was so he winds up meeting
up with the vanta organization up in San Francisco and so he felt that that was a
little bit more that that was what he was about personally because he was not
into this war thing the War Machine and so what he wound up doing was he did get
involved with astronomy and he made his first uh here it says he made his first
uh telescope out of recycl pieces from Zeiss uh binoculars and he saw the rings
of Saturn and that kind of got him going and then later on you'll see that he was
at the monastery of San Francisco and he started grinding glass from the port
hole glass as he's here by the port right with all the ships so it's kind of like he's doing a uh down low CIA
special op thing because he starts doing this with a Vengeance and he's hiding things in the in the gardening shed
because that was what his his realm was so when he first made his uh 12 in he
said in the quote here my God it looks like I'm coming in for a landing and I thought lordy lordy everyone's got to
see this and so that's where he got the idea of public astronomy into his head
because he's like man if he was so moved by what he saw then clearly um he knew
he had to share so he it got him into trouble uh because he kept grinding
mirrors and things and he wasn't supposed to be doing that at the monastery and he was AOL for a lot of
the uh things he was supposed to do but as it turns out he basically kind of had to go but this book here is the original
book that he learned how to gmir I think it's the 1935 Saturn uh telescope company and
that was what came in with the Optics in fact he actually told me that book where he learned how to do stuff so um anyway
so he's basically now at the point of kind of gotting to get kicked out of the monastery but what happened was and
talked about like what Donna was saying about him I got a book somebody where's he going what's happening well because
he wound up uh going into a service he winds up uh needing some help so he just
he had a group of people and they were taking him in they were giving him food so he could continue his astronomy
Obsession which was really pretty cool uh they fed him they they found um things for him to do he wound up
teaching ATM at the um Community College there and this was actually this this is
tumble weed which we'll talk about later but this is one of the ones that his student had made he loved the size of it
loved everything about it you could see him with the wagon um I did an article
on T you know refurbishing tumble weed and somebody asked how you know who's
that old guy with that scope anyway he did not know who John Dobson was so anyway so he got an education but John
was on the streets of s of Sacramento and then you know when they started
getting these ideas of like hey let's go to the national parks so they had this
bus they called Starship centara and um actually in um when we
were Alcon 2017 at the eclipse this couple said oh my God I recognize that
scope it came out of the back of a really really bright orange band and so they had some stories so a lot of the
stories and videos of a lot of that is on the Facebook page called unofficial
tumble weed so you can go there start at the bottom and you can see how we got tumble weed where she's at right now but
a lot of these people like you know he went to Creator Lake he went to Z very good friends with the park rangers they
always made uh great strides to make sure that there they had stiens from
food they had places to stay and of course you have the story of John
sleeping in his scope you know taking out the you know the spider and climbing in there with his yeah with the his his
wife and and son and they were sleeping in the tube so only in John Dobson's world does that happen um so these
things were huge they're big light buckets and so they went Grand Canyon this is Death Valley every uh Christmas
he would spend at furnus Creek and I know that the year he passed I I I did a
talk there with Donna and people I didn't realize people came from all around the world just to hear him at
furnus Creek at De Valley every Christmas so in fact um here he is at Crater Lake
and he got called back there quite a bit he was there on a lot of occasions and
the park system just really liked John they liked the he liked everything about them and so you can see the van
everybody would pull up and open up the back ends and get these beautifully big things out the door so here's Don um and
this is one of the fun question comments that um John had said because somebody
asked him a question you know John always had some sort of a a comment he wasn't you know sometimes you didn't
know if he was yeah you don't know how to take some of the things he said but what I thought was funny was somebody
asked him what's the difference between you and a park ranger and John says the Salk astronomer entertains the public
using telescopes at the park while the park ranger entertains the public with the rest of the park so so um yeah so he
kind of had you know he had a bit of a kind of funny sense of humor but this whole article thing just goes through
his whole thing and a lot of these people are still they're going to be on later on this in this
um uh session with us you know what I mean so and we have the then he went to
started going into India South uh to Mexico doing all kinds of eclipse
hunting and things like that and I believe we have um one of the things
that he talked about was having like a schedule like a rock star because he was Donna was constantly booking him this
way that way wherever he could go you know what I mean and he was open and he he's been to every single state except
Oklahoma and I tried to get him here but he started to have many strokes and he couldn't couldn't uh leave town there
you go Mr ly there you are with John and up here I mean I think believe this was
in Mexico there's Carolyn Schumacher with you guys so that was pretty cool
but he has he's had a lot of friends this our first time meeting John here when he did the um thing at the uh
Canyon Country uh Elementary School and John's sitting there helping us and
stuff like that so that was our first encounter so we didn't meet John till much later but this whole thing talks
about him giving doing Outreach into his 90s okay he just didn't stop he did a
lot of work with um Jane Houston Jones here's
John's 95th birthday at Griffith Park and this is the the
conversation that David was talking about when they were talking about this Sky telescope this is the slide that he
was on when when he was reading that that letter that uh David read already about Sky telescope the wasn't
interested 95th birthday here's Bob eloran I his best friend that he hung
out with um this was our first encounter actually with the sidewalk astronomers
at the um Griffith Observatory for his birthday and of course herei is looking through
is that Delphinium Donna big blue or is it just blue I'm not sure yeah but John you know spent
the night um talking to everybody looking great Scopes that and we
actually built a scope during that that time frame and uh in this file you'll
also see that iand started from somebody from uh South America where they said
hey we should really do a inter um you know a international sidewalk astronomer
night so um so that started and we started into making buttons and badges
for that and then on his birthday I had made John a um because I heard he was
cold all the time so I made him this polar fleece that actually was um the
logo of sidewalk astronomers and gave it to him on his birthday there and there's
some Publications here and and and David Le showed you already that wooden book there about userfriendly sidewalk Scopes
but he's got other media and there's also on the web page great um you know
when he was on Johnny Carson and cabin and things like that so um he was a he was a character and and we all have a a
lot to owe this man for just doing the abnormal kind of a thing so um but
anyway this is available um at the website at sidewalk astronomer us and it's on the the biography if you are
from another country and want to translate that for us we would really appreciate appreciate that but anyway so
um it's a quick and dirty thing but John was um he was unique and everybody took
him in and and rallied around this whole concept and that's why his legacy still is very active today so anyways thank
you so much thank you so much Peggy Scott I think you're going to
introduce the next yes okay so um up next is Terry man uh Terry man is is a
former uh two-time two-term president of the astronomical League she is currently
Secretary of the astronomical League she's a Powerhouse of uh of uh astronomy
Outreach yourself and um uh it's been my distinct pleasure to uh have worked with
her uh the little bit that I have um and uh so you know I'm always uh uh you know
amazed at her uh work in spreading the word of astronomy through the league
through her uh astrophotography the Aurora photography she does um she's
just really an inspiration and so thanks for coming on Terry for this very very
special Global star party thank you Scott it is a pleasure to be here and to
listen about John Dobson I did meet him one time and it was a long time ago when
he was doing a talk I believe in Columbus and it was it was amazing just to see how he works and how he you know
thought and how he answered questions he kept you on your toes and a lot of times you were laughing because he made sense
but he said it as few people would have answered these questions he answered
very direct and he was amazing totally amazing so um I am going to get ready to
an ask the questions here for the astronomical league and we always start off with this
first slide um we always remind people never to look at the sun with any kind
of optical equipment without the correct filter damage can be done and the sun
has been so active here lately it's really been fantastic to see all the sun spots and prominences and everything
that we have seen it really makes me want to find Aurora but I think I have to go too far north just yet so whatever
you do if you're going to check out the Sun make sure you've got the proper filters yes and so I've got the answers
from GSP 61 that was on September 7th the first question was what
important us astronomy celebration was held in Washington DC on October 7th
2009 the answer is the celebration of the international year of astronomy and
it was held at the White House second question was what is the name of
the sister galaxy of the Milky Way galaxy and why is it called a sister Galaxy and the answers are the Andromeda
galaxy and it is most like our own Milky Way
galaxy next question was William hersel is most famous for discovering Uranus
who helped him develop the mod mathematical approach to astronomy and
the answer was his sister Caroline wow yeah I didn't know that
that's it's pretty cool very cool yeah so these were the names that we added to
the uh door prize list um for the September answers and
tonight I'm going to ask the questions for this star party so astronomy day happens twice a
year there is one date left in 20 21 what date will astronomy day happen
in 2021 that hasn't happened already get your
as and answer the question send the answers to the questions to secretary at
asle league.org second question is how much does Earth
way and again send it to secretary at astr league.org
third question what is so impressive about the planet PRS J
1719 D1 1438 B I'm gonna leave that there for a
minute um and again send the answers to secretary at astr league.org and what's
so impressive about this
planet all right and I wanted to talk a little bit just very little bit and thank everyone for watching elcon
virtual we were looking at the numbers today we had almost 22,000 views over
those three days which was amazing and Scott I want to thank you the league thanks you for all of your help with
broadcasting and everything you have done we had such a great time thank you
very much I I I think you got one extra zero there but oh gee I would have been
better yet wouldn't it I could the 220,000 that would have been
great very happy with 22,000 but yeah it was uh it was an
amazing uh experience for me just kind of being behind the scenes and and seeing all the interaction that was
going on and uh you know the astronomical League I mean they brought their game on they did um you know you
had fantastic speakers um and uh so much enthusiasm I love seeing the clubs and
what they did yeah with their door prizes with their you know and talking
about the clubs and what they do and all the rest of it was really really interesting very very cool and it could
really only be pulled off by the astronomical League well thank you but I tell you we do thank our clubs um they
each club that donated had a certain amount of time to talk about their clubs and we had had almost
$9,000 in donations for door rizes I think we had something like 35 clubs
that stepped forward and five or seven individuals that Ste forward it was amazing between the speakers and the
door prizes we were just having a great time we had such a wide variety of speakers so yeah it was a good time
thank you Scott we really appreciate everything you did thanks Terry thanks so much and we have uh astronomical
League live coming up Friday as David was talking about uh 7 PM we we have
Claude plymate coming and he is going to speak about astronomical Adaptive Optics
now he was he is a retired engineer from the national solar Observatory and he is amazing I saw him
I think Scott didn't I see him at was he at Mount Wilson or no he wasn't at Mount Wilson he was
Big Bear I believe sorry yeah he and he was at kid Peete National solar
Observatory the McMath telescope he worked on uh his wife wife also was a
professional astronomer uh and so Teresa Teresa pate and they are just a
wonderful couple um and I just love it when they give presentations they're so
enthusiastic and their presentations to me are almost magical so it's really cool you know I'm glad you're having him
on yes I am looking forward to hearing him uh please join us if you can this
Friday right here where you're at at 7 pm EDT
so thank you Scott and I look for forward to listening to the rest of the program tonight me too me too well
that's great so up next is uh uh Sabella Burling game and Sabella has been giving
presentations on uh the global star party I think this is her maybe fourth
presentation or fifth presentation uh Sabella why don't you come on onto the
program and uh I have a video that uh that you presented uh that I can play
but let's let's have you come on and and talk about it a little bit Yeah so it's basically um first of
all can you hear me okay I can hear you perfectly okay good um so it's basically
about um the dobsonian mount and the effect it had and how easy it is to
basically find things especially the motorized ones too
right so would you like for me to play it now yes okay here we go so let's see
um it's here and I
will bring this up full screen and we'll play
it [Music]
when most people think of telescopes they usually think of a long tube with glass lenses that let you get closer
views of objects in the night sky but what most people don't realize is that
the mount is just as important as the telescope itself unless you have a good sturdy one it'll be very difficult if
not impossible to use the telescope effectively before John sson invented
the mount named after him in 1965 amateure astronomers had mounts
that were either very heavy and bulky or lightweight and flimsy good reflector
telescopes were also very expensive and most people couldn't afford one with the mirror larger than about 6 in this meant
that most amateur astronomers couldn't get good views of deep Sky objects like galaxies and nebul and had a hard time
tracking objects unless they had an expensive motor Drive too so when John
Dobson invented a mount that was sturdy portable and affordably priced it was a real game changer it was very sturdy and
could track objects smoothly merely by nudging the telescope along it was also
capable of supporting very large telescopes with bigger mirrors so this opened up amazing views of the night sky
that were barely visible before because the mount was made of plywood and other inexpensive Parts the average person
could easily afford one and even build one himself the mount could be easily detached from the telescope making even
a large setup quite portable today there are thousands of telescopes all over the world that are mounted on mounts that
bears his name they come in all sizes and can even be motorized to find and track objects so how did John Dobson
come up with the idea for his Mount when asked he said that it was based on Canon Mount designs that had been ran for for
hundreds of [Music]
years my [Music]
God [Music]
wow uh Sabella that was a fantastic presentation yeah my dad did most of the
editing um well he did a great job and you did too you did too so I'm glad that you brought this to light and uh and
talked about the dobsonian mount because uh you know John doson he wouldn't take
ownership that he was the designer of this okay and uh but I think everybody
else recognized that um he gave it a very special place in the design of
telescopes today and I can see dobsonian telescopes being around for a very very
long time so uh that I I cut my teeth in astronomy on a big dobsonian telescope I
call it Big it was a 13in telescope um it was bigger than most of the telescopes around in most of the
astronomy clubs that I went to at that time but you just showed in that video a huge huge uh giant dobsonian I think
it's like I can't remember how many inches this thing is but I think it's like over
50 inches of aperture oh my God there is U nor uh uh there is a telescope maker
up in Canada uh I don't know why the names escaping me right now but he makes
up to 7 2 in dobsonians that are completely computerized and all the rest
of it so it's very very cool behind me is um uh one of our dobsonian telescopes
I just brought it here in honor of John Dobson and so uh but all of us that have been to astronomy uh star parties um uh
you know the big ones like Okie teex or you know the winter Star Party Texas Star Party a lot of them there's some
big dobsonians there you know 20inch ones 30inch ones sometimes bigger and
they are a they're really wonderful to look through because you can see amazing stuff and sometimes even color in nebula
because the apertures are so big you know so thank you uh Sabella and thank you John Dobson so thank you for all of
that that's great and Donna I'm gonna turn it back over to you okay I think
now we're going to Andy paneros and Andy is going to tell us a little bit about
his time with John Andy's an amateur who had U John come and stay with him every
year and hold classes Andy has a radio program on
wpkn and I'll turn it over to you Andy thanks very much uh uh yeah it's
hard to say you know you had me comeing and want to talk about John in 15 minutes after KN him for all those years
and uh him coming to visit me but I think what was really most important I
felt uh was that uh I wanted to speak about the the the power of the dobsonian
telescope and what it meant to people and so I have the best thing way to do it is to explain what happened to me uh
I was sitting in my office one day uh the person who was a resident radiologist came in and said to me hey I
I heard you're interested in astronomy I you know I read a lot of books and I see watch TV programs and he said you're
going to build a telescope and I was first thing I said to myself was I think this guys nuts you know you build a
telescope uh no no you don't understand it's a it's a very simple telescope it's a dobsonian and uh it's a reflecting
telescope and it's very easy to build and and so uh you know he helped me we went to a salvage yard um we got the the
uh parts for the telescope and uh you know I I laid it on on my my front lawn
and uh when I did uh my neighbors looked at me and said so what are you doing what's that uh I said toilet flanges and
stove pipe and you know uh Plywood And I said I'm building a telescope and they
all looked at me like I think Andy's going off the deep end uh but uh but but we did build it um and
you know he showed me how to use it and I was just amazed the you know what what I could do with without so many
telescopes so he he says to me after I build it you know uh hey you know Andy you got to go to stalhane and I oh yeah
he'd come up and see me we worked in the same place and every day but you know Andy we you got to go to stalhane and
okay okay so finally I said okay this sounds wonderful Springfield Vermont I live in Conneticut um we went to
stalhane and I really didn't know much about John John doson and and John was at stalhane that year that was
1996 I believe and um and so I actually met John and I spoke to him a little bit
it was very nice and you know just a few words and you know was very you know appreciative to you know he gave me his
time and we talked a little bit and uh and so uh you know had a great time at stalhane you know Dark Skies I live in
Connecticut and you have to go really to like the North West corner to see anything that's pretty decent these days
uh and uh with dark skies and so you know I came home and uh you know shortly
after that uh there was a lunar eclipse uh I think it was October of the same year this 96 or 97 I can't remember
exactly and uh I brought my telescope out my front yard and I set it up and Saturn was very close to the Moon that
year and this little girl was riding her bike in my neighborhood and neighbor and she said uh what what are you what are
you looking at and I said yeah I'm looking at the eclipse in Saturn she looks into the telescope and this is
something that John you know basically said to me many years later she said you know everybody needs to see this and so
she rode her bike around the neighborhood um and it and basically uh there's only 12 houses on my street I
think 10 of them came over people woke their kids up out of sleep sleep to come see this thing and there was the eclipse
and I got to say that everybody on that on my front lawn was a couple inches off
the ground you know everybody got so excited and I was like wow I I I just
did sidewalk astronomy and didn't even know it you know here I here's the power of the dobsonian telescope and sidewalk
astronomy so here I am uh sitting on my front lawn uh doing sidewalk astronomy
never even intended to do it in the first place and of course at this point I want to meet John again and I figured
okay I I'll I'll see John in next year and it's an elephant I figured he's he's there every year uh again I wasn't you
know uh didn't go to many Star parties at that point and he wasn't there uh a
few months later fortunately I was I went to San Francisco uh on um on
business and I was there for two weeks and I said boy you know I wonder if John Dobson is running one of his telescope
making classes i' I'd love to see it and so I I I contacted the sidewalk
astronomers San Francisco sidewalk astronomers and and they um John Houston
I'm sorry Jane Houston Jones who was Jane Houston at the time got back to me and said oh yeah John would love you to
come to you know a couple you can't come to all the classes they're over a period of weeks and uh I I went to some of his
telescope making classes a couple of his cosmology classes and we just kind of hit it off uh uh and uh you know I got
invited by the San Francisco sidewalk astronomers that evening uh at the random Museum to do some sidewalk
astronomy and I I didn't have my scope with me but you know of Chris helped out and I'm standing next to to John you
know JD and I said so are you coming to stalhane this year and he said oh I I i'
I'd love to come to stellane and I I said to myself well you're John doson
right just just call up the Springfield telescope makers and you know tell them you'd like to go and uh he said he gave
me some contact names uh people I said would you like me to to look into this for you and he said yeah yeah sure I'd
love to go and um and and one of the names was Carol dantonio who's on this
evening sometime uh and uh yeah I I made the contacts uh everybody was very happy to
have John you know participate and from uh thanks to
uh uh thanks to Donna uh uh John uh I hosted John from
200 1998 to 2008 somewhere around there uh every year except I think one year he
went to Russia I think and he didn't make stalhane and uh you know I I did um I we went to
stalhane every year you know David Levy was there he had been there several years and uh you know we all got to get
together and I kind of realized okay you know John wants to come to stellane because because uh you know it's a
telescope making you know uh convention uh this is you know his love and his passion and all through the years I I
used I would say to myself you know John loves it here but what is it in particular that he that he loves I have
a a um a PowerPoint presentation I'm not sure if I can with some images if I can
show you or not if not I can just continue to to talk
um let's see I'm going to
uh if you haven't shared on Zoom before try look at the bottom of your Zoom
client you'll see a share screen button a green one here we go and it will show you many options and so you don't want
to share just your desktop you want to share the application that has your presentation corre which should be this
is that uh let's see there you go perfect how's that yeah
nice I will try to get through this quick because I know we will have lots of other people and all right and so I I
did put a a couple of Clips in here uh there we go can everybody see that okay
yes yeah okay and I from uh my interview with JD I interviewed him uh on my radio
show a few times I I have a couple of Clips here of course here he is with Tumbleweed and uh I got to look through
Tumbleweed in San Francisco and I I'm G to play this clip if I can get it to
play Can Can everyone hear that no you need to stop sharing okay
and play it huh when you share on the left hand side there is a share um
system sound or something like that you'll see a little check box let's go back to share again here and then you sh
then you commit to sharing okay um so I have to unshare to do that
yeah here I'll unshare you there you go there you go okay we'll try it anyway uh I won't
do one this for every no it's cool you have to learn how to do it yeah but I mean it'll take time that's but here we
go is that it can we say play it again I guess okay so so go back to
sharing oh you have to go back to sharing to do it okay back to share all right let's go back to
sharing and all right nandy don't worry about this because everybody has to learn how
to do it so I have done it but uh to go back and forth uh yeah I understand some
time yeah yeah I understand on the left hand side before you commit to sharing there is a there's a check box that says
uh share system sound or share oh yeah where is that uh okay before I commit
okay before you commit yeah uh there it is share sound okay perfect there we go
and now you can commit all right okay and then we can go back play
it it should play it should play there a little delay there okay uh now
if I can get my cursor to there we go I saw the third quarter moon through
that telescope I thought oh my God everybody's got to see this everybody can hear that now yeah okay great so I
just wanted to show just a
few and so of course um of course wanted to show John as he helped several people
build their own telescopes uh and a little bit about the you know the of course him going to the
national parks and of course the 24 incher and I believe think that's Brian rhods he's the person on the left there
is the one who ground the mirror for the 24 inch and I think this woman painted the uh the the telescope for him uh uh
the sidewalk astronomers you see we're a service arm
of the national we became a service arm of the national par but in the cities we do planets and the moon you can't see
galaxies and things from the cities so those things we do in the national
park and uh I'd like to let's see just a few more P let's see and so I think this
one here talks a little bit about San Francisco astronomers let's see in the 60s if you went out with the with the
astronomers they were taking pictures with their little telescopes they had them all set up so the track things
across the sky for photography and we weren't doing that so we don't have to do all that complicated Machinery we
just push the thing around by hand and so we can make much bigger telescopes and haul them around like that so that's
what happened uh what happened was that the amateur astronomers saw all these
great big telescopes running around and they thought we could do that if we didn't have to take these stupid
pictures so uh finally uh uh JD and I get to stellane and of course uh my I
think my third time there and of course the place was lit up with with John being there and of course uh David was
there that year too and and several years and uh and so here we are the um I
don't know how many of you have been able to go to are on the East Coast or been able to go to stellane but it's a great convention to telescope makers and
of course here is where everybody shows their their Wares you know the telescope contests and uh it's a great uh a great
venue and here's JD you know grinding some glass underneath the tent uh and
everybody was crowded around him and it's a caveman's job he used to say all the time and and of course uh everybody
got a big kick out of John being under the tent and uh and grinding some glass and of course uh he got to see
several people this is Steve doson uh he calls his adopted son and many of you
know him as Stargazer Steve that guy in the middle you probably don't recognize him but that's me a long time ago
um and uh of course you know David several times uh Carolyn Shoemaker um
and year after year uh oh that's me and of course the guy on the right is the guy who came into my office and told me
that I could build a topian telescope that's J Andy you're still on the you're still displaying the first image
ofation oh so I have to go back and share again uh you're still sharing you just
need to uh click on the other images uh I see yeah two
uh so where am I now I'm still on the first image yeah on the first image uh
why is this uh I'm going through each one on my on my computer if are you
running two computers or one I am running two one's on a uh okay so one of them is sharing uh just the first image
but both of them have both images on them h okay
um let's see if I can if I can go out of presenter's view let's try that and see what happens real
quick um I yeah the one that we're seeing is not in presenter view yeah so um I have
to stop sharing to do this and go back yes yeah okay sorry it's okay okay so
that's okay by next year we'll have it great thanks brontis it does it does
does and it's it's not easy as everyone knows uh that's right this do it every
every day
I there we go a presenters
mode I have a question for you Andy after knowing John Dobson for all
these years what is the what is the Lasting Impression what what are you
left with with uh with with John yeah uh that's a good question uh what really I
was most impressed with with John about was that uh when I first picked him up the first time he came to stellane uh we talked about like trees
and and animals and birds and uh and rocks and uh and and just life in
general and I was just amazed that astronomy which was such a big part of his life was uh was not his whole life
and he had other interests and he was a very bright person of course and you know later finding out he was a chemist and and you know uh you know science not
just science but uh just life in general uh he was curious curious that's what
got me yeah yeah and what I enjoyed the most was we would go down to the uh Shoreline here in Connecticut on Long
Island s and we'd look at the tide and the waves coming in and we'd see the Terminator as
the sun was setting and you know just all of the things that would happen in nature and as as Donna says his
curiosity and he was always so able to communicate and uh I just felt that it
was such a great pleasure to know him uh to be his friend and to be with him so many years and I thank Donna Donna Smith
of course so much for that the help all the people in Connecticut that helped me uh when when uh you know when John came
to visit he was here for a couple of months at a time and other people he stayed with other people as well when I
hosted him and of course he came to this Connecticut Star Party several times so
uh yeah to me um but Andy you you don't have to thank me one of the few that was
one of the few things that John demanded you know he had to go to maray and Dan and to Carol he had to go to yours you
know it was like that that time is Andy's you know so so all I did was follow
instructions well I I I'm glad to to hear that and I know that I felt they were very good we were very good friends
and I I um I remember you know one day he he kept we said it a couple days in a row he said you know my friends call me
JD and uh and then he said you know my friends call me JD and I was like oh oh
he wants me to call him JD I'm his friend you know and um and I you know uh John being such
a great commity indicator um and being you know we could just walk around the neighborhood and he would he'd pick up
you know dandelion and start eating them you know and I I'd say something like uh do they taste good he goes well of
course they taste good I eat them you know uh he'd start playing the piano in my house uh um just a very you know uh
um inquisitive like you say uh person uh wanted to share his his life with
everyone else and didn't want a penny for it and I think his invention of the dobsonian mount which like you like you
said Scotty Doesn't really take much credit for yeah is the reason why we could all have this romance having large
aperture telescopes that are easy to use and we can and we can bring and see the night's sky with so that's right yeah I
I you know being in the industry of telescope making I can't I mean I can't
possibly describe to you the impact that this one guy had you know and uh I I was
almost in disbelief at the time uh that when I learned that he didn't make a dime off
of the design you know he didn't want to claim it he didn't want to have any
copyright on it he didn't have any patent on it you know and and in fact it was quite the opposite and I think that
alone had such a huge impact on me too and that's the reason why I spend so much time doing educational Outreach
because it is the juice I mean it's it's the energy for me uh to continue on uh
to be involved in this industry so many people that work in this industry are burned out when they go home at night
they don't want to think about telescopes they don't want to look up at the sky they don't want to think about astronomy they just want to go home okay
uh every night that I walk out that it's clear I look at those Stars I look at
the planets if I have a telescope I can look through I look through that too and I love doing this you know this so this
is this keeps me going yeah and I think you I agree with you and I feel the same way that that that night and that
eclipse in the passion that that came to me you know of of being able to share this with everyone and and being able to
have this telescope to to to be able to do it with uh you know was it's been a love affair ever since and and I thank
John for that you know uh and uh yeah uh well we that's why we're all here we
want to keep it going and uh I I hope I I probably said too much I hope I didn't
mess up too much here but uh I think the main thing was we talked about John and uh right and uh I I hope that you join
us when we do this again next year that's great thank you very much thanks for having me thank you thank you for
coming so I think next we'll go to David David Fay he is ALS Frey he is also a
telescope maker who can tell us a little bit about his
experiences still here yeah can you guys hear me yeah yeah great yeah so um thank
you guys for inviting me um John I'm just gonna say a few words and then show you guys some uh pictures I'm a little
nervous but that's okay that's okay you're among friends so so um I met John
the first time at ten and Irving and you know the crazy guy with the
telescope um this in San Francisco um bunch of restaurants around that area if you guys are familiar with that
area and I saw Saturn and of course it just you know completely blew my mind
right so the next thing I know I was taking his uh telescope making class at the old Academy of Science in Golden
Gate Park and um I made a 10-inch in his class which is what you
know most people start out with and I remember we were uh doing STAR testing in the Africa Hall there
uh at night we were the only people in there and he set up a you know a light at the end LED or something and we were
doing STAR testing of our telescopes in the Africa Hall in the Academy of Sciences and that was really kind of a
romantic thing so anyway I made the 10 inch uh then I got aperture fever and I
made a ground and polish to 16 inch which he helped me figure and then uh I
got aperture fever and I ground and Polished the 20 20 inch and then I started to buy a 25 inch
blank and I was going to hand grind and polish it but luckily uh cooler heads
prevailed at that point so in any event um I caught the bug and uh after John
was a little bit uh older I took over his telescope making class for two years at the Randall
Museum in San Francisco and I helped I don't know 10 or 12 or 15 people make Scopes probably only four people
actually finished them I think and then um my friend Doug Smith took over the
class from there he may actually still be uh teaching that I'm not sure I don't live up in the Bay Area anymore um so
anyway John changed my life and I'll he told me a few things about making
telescopes the most important one he used to say if you're gonna break your glass break it
early um and I always thought that was funny uh well obviously and if you see
his video his telescope making video at one point he takes a 16-inch blank and he pounds a nail with it into a board so
that's that's pretty cool he also said that the figuring a mirror is never done
uh until somebody you know takes the mirror away from you they got to take it away from you because you never get it
right at some point someone's just gonna kind of remove it from you and put it in a dobsonian
mount and then um he used to say and he said this in the video too how much 60
grit do you use to grind a mirror and he used to say four times the amount of salt for scrambled
eggs and that that is a lot of salt in my opinion you know so um these are just kind of funny things that I just
remember him saying and then in in the class he would ask people yes or no questions all the
time and you know people were terrified of him and they couldn't say yes or no and finally when somebody would say yes
or no I get it right he would say you're right then he'd kind of look off to the side with that kind of Ry smile that he
has right that you've all seen um and he was always prompt for his
classes you know he was only late once and it turned out this one time that he
was late he said that uh apparently some
eye doctor uh gave him new corneas or something or worked on his eyes to to
kind of fix the you know how your eyes get more and more yellow and he said that he was cooking before the class and
he got so enthralled that the blue flame on his stove that he just lost track of
time because it was so beautiful that was the only time he was ever late to class and he told us that story and
apparently his eyes were better and he saw that blue color you know we all know that blue color and I thought that was
really interesting that he just got sort of Lost in the in the sort of poetry of the
color and um so anyway I also took his uh cosmology class and I videotaped it I
said Donna think I sent you those tapes right I I don't know if you guys ever
posted what's that I'm just behind on getting them posted yeah I don't know how the quality is we have an old
website that's really you know either am mountain of work to change and upgrade or struggle to add so
uh well that's cool so I gave those to you guys so hopefully someday they'll be
useful um and then you know over the years I've been doing star parties now
ever since that happened that was like in the late 80s I think when I made my first telescope and I did a rough
estimate I think now all the um star parties I've been to at Mount Tam at yosity at uh you know various
places um Culver City now down in LA because I live in LA and at uh um
Griffith's Observatory and mount uh Mount Wilson I figure about 40,000
people have looked through my telescopes over the years and uh they've all climbed up the six-
foot ladder in the dark no one's ever tripped or fallen and they've all seen things like M13 the Ring Nebula and
Saturn and so on so John really changed my life and you know as a result you know I was
president of San Francisco amateur astronomers for I think one term and I'm
now a solar system Ambassador and a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society so John really affected me in so
many ways and um you know I I'm just so grateful and uh so I've just got some
quick pictures to show you guys excuse me David before you go on uhuh um so
once we get back into doing events since you're in La I can use you at the the public
libraries yeah I'd love to do it if we can ever get out of this uh yes great I
have more libraries than volunteers well I'm excited because I
I'm I'm now a volunteer up at Mount Wilson in fact I did had a star party up there about two weeks ago actually um so
can you guys see my screen yes we can okay I'll just kind of run through this you know this is uh most of these
pictures are from Mount Tam and this is just a picture I didn't take this picture I'm not sure who did but this was kind of off in the distance you know
before the sunsets at Mount Tam and then here's a picture many of you have probably seen this this was the
memorial we did at Land's End and you can see you know everybody who's anybody
I guess was there and you can see the various dos there there's my 20in in the background there and there's Ken Frank I
don't know if Ken's on right now but there's Ken and you know just everybody
who you know I've seen at Star parties over the years is here and it's just it was a wonderful day you know John's uh
you know Memorial out there at lanzan in San Francisco where we did a lot of star parties and then here's John at L's end
as well um just giving a lecture before you know the sun went
down and uh that's my 16inch that I made you know that John helped me figure he
actually signed it um which is kind of cool and you can see there's John's Sun telescope in the background I think
there you can see it I don't know if you guys can see my cursor but you can see in the background and there's you know John just you know these are kind of
action photos of John it looks like it was in about 2007 that's cool that the dates there um there's me I I lost a few
pounds but you can see how happy John is and uh he was just you know such a great
guy and then here's some more pictures at Len um one day there's Ken Frank and some other people that were there a lot
of you may know Ken I don't know where this picture came from but this is in San Francisco and
this is John um probably after a or during a class probably looking at the
figure on a uh un aluminized mirror I would imagine but that's that's the classic
dobsonian right there you know and we we all know that thing right so and these pictures are all of uh his
birthday party that we had in 2009 at the Randall Museum there's
John um oh Tony this is Sam S there's
Ken sure um you know that's me uh and you know all these people here no John
uh I forget this gentleman's name charington William charington yeah and I think that was his son actually over
here um but anyway it was a really wonderful uh celebration of John's
birthday probably 95 maybe or something I don't know and there's John you know
with the cake somebody made a little uh you know reflector telescope there for
him which is kind of cool and there's just some more pictures of John those
were all at the Randall Museum in San Francisco and then I'm going to just uh blow through some pictures all these
people really were uh impacted by John this is a picture of the star party at
Yos that San Francisco amateur astronomers did every year and we always took a group photo which was um really
nice and then here's a picture you can see in the background you know half dome
in the background oh beautiful and um you know you can see this I don't if you
guys can see my cursor but the this telescope it was made this is an 18inch that dug
Smith made and you can see my 20inch in the background and then you know all the
people at at uh you know semy that we did every year um so you know he just affected so many
people and then this is a group photo up at Mount Tam and um you know just a
number of people up there with their telescopes and you can see this is Mount Tam right you can see all the dogs right
some of them are homemade some of them are store-bought and you can just see how happy everybody is right and all
these telescopes that were set up there pretty much every month since I guess
the late 80s um up until about two years ago there was a star party up there every single month wow and then um you
know more dobs you can see these are you know homemade dobs um you know it's just you know
really cool and you can see how happy everybody is with their dobsonians right you know I'm so proud of my telescope
and um I forget this gentleman's name um do you know who that is anybody know who this guy is that's um Dean ketton yeah
and um I haven't heard I I'm not sure I don't want to speak out of turn I'm not
sure how Dean is doing um um actually he's okay um well I don't know how great
but I had an email from him today so oh good because I knew I knew he wasn't feeling well but he his dob was really
cool because it came apart in two pieces and he throw it in the back of his car and uh I think he had a 12 inch there
but you can see it's just a classic is here tonight what's that was here tonight Dean is actually present he's
with us tonight oh he's there Dean are you there this is this is a different Dean this is Dean Gerson yeah it's a
different Dean yeah and then more happy people with their dobs putting them
together you just see how happy everybody is and all these people I guess at the end of the day owe their legacy to John
um this telescope man this guy would bring this thing up there it was it was just a masterpiece of craftsmanship and
he always put his little rug out for it too which I thought yeah that's cool look at that the thing is absolutely
beautiful more I'm sorry go ahead you keep referring to Mount Tam I think
that's the nickname for Mount tamel pass is that right yeah mount tamop payas
it's right across the bay from San Francisco um yeah funny story about John John used
to walk home from San from Mount Tam he would walk home after star parties all the way back to San Francisco that's
quite a walk and I I don't know if this is true but I heard that uh you know they they shut down The Pedestrian
access to the Golden Gate Bridge after like 11 o'clock or something and he was walking home and he jumped over the
barrier and walked across the bridge got a ticket and uh went to court apparently
and Saidi don't own a car how do you expect me to get home I was walking home and they let him go they didn't make him
pay the fine so um but walking home from Mount Tam AAS oh interesting thing about
Mount Tam too when the fog rolls into the Bay Area the only thing in the Bay Area that sticks out of the fog is the
top of Mount Tam and you know the Bay Area is an urban landscape you know
light pollution everywhere but when the fog rolls in it cuts out all the light pollution you can actually see the Milky
Way from the top of Mount Tam yeah and uh I suspect that's one of the only
metropolitan areas in the world where that happens so that's really cool and then just more pictures and
sorry I'm showing off my 20 inch that's my son uh I like this picture because it
makes the telescope look bigger all the little little kids right so um and just
more people up there this is another star party that I did up in noat California and then this is at the space
station and then uh this is a picture I drew of um Jupiter through the 20 incher
looks like back in or maybe that was a 16 iner I don't remember but that was back in 1999 so anyway that's all all of
that and sorry for the vacation pictures and I'm ending with u you know a uh picture of Mount Tam and
then I have one last thing can you guys see can you guys see my camera yes
they redid let me see if I can how do you stop sharing ah there you go I don't
know if you can put me on the screen as if you can pin me to the screen for a second but I want to show you guys
something uh go ahead okay they redid All of the
um signage in at Mount Tam and they did an auction and uh this is the sign from
Rock Rings where we did all the star parties and I I uh bid on the sign I out
bid another individual for this sign so it's kind of a legacy for I feel like it's a legacy for John because that's
where so many Star parties happen at Rock Springs Trail head at Mount Tamil
Pas and that's all I have to say and thank you guys very much John really changed my life I'm getting a little
emotional here I think but John really did uh have an enormous effect on me and the people around me so thank so much I
really I really appreciate join I just wanted to say one one little
memory of my own that one of uh John's visits to us we met him at the Tucson
airport he was to stay with us for a few days and you know he came off and he had
this laundry bag full of full of items and his clothes and everything and as
soon as he saw us and recogniz us he's 90 years old he jumps up and clicks his
heels it was extraordinary this man could do something like that at age
90 well oh actually actually one more thing that reminds me he told a story that he loved riding the buses in San
Francisco and he loved to give away his seat to people younger than
him so uh anyway it was kind of funny so when you John up at the airport he was
the last guy off the plane I mean instead of like being able to board first or whatever he you would watch
everybody come off the plane and get their luggage finally here would come John and you always gonna be
last all right well thank you guys thank you so much I really enjoyed having you here so Barry um do you want to go
next I think he's here right
maybe can you hear me yeah now I can oh well that's
wonderful I I I don't have any pictures to show I first maybe you want to
introduce yourself I didn't do any good introduction so tell us I'm uh I'm talking to you from rhod
Island right now but I lived in Hawaii for a long time and I met John in
Hawaii uh and if I can uh kind of divert
my uh Grand Canyon talk to uh cover some of that uh first time with
John in Hawaii uh he showed up with Jane Houston and uh her pal Frank and um they
landed at the Kona Airport on the big island and that's you know that's the
one everybody asks us about if they find out we're an astronomer they say oh have
you been to Mona you know like that's some kind of a mecca for amateur astronomers which it is not but John was
offered the chance to tour the kex and uh he also was invited to speak at the I
think it's the Hawaii Preparatory Academy and so there was a little package deal and we're we're going to do
a star party or two and we were on the big island I I lived on aahu but I flew
over there with a 15 incher figure and he needed something to work with and uh
so we began doing these things and and we got a nice tour of the kek the the
thing I'll mention about that is that uh some guy who apparently was a a a fan
of of John's ended up being the optical the head of Optics up there on the
mountain for kek and and uh so he was
kind of uh you know I guess patronizing is the right word and of course John
doesn't do patronizing very much so uh so uh he passed us on to another guy who
gave the tourist explanation of how Adaptive Optics work and John stopped
the guy in the middle of his Spiel and said now that's garbage he said that's for tourists now you tell me how this
thing really works and he had his angry voice if you've ever heard John's angry
voice uh you know he he really insisted stop that nonsense and tell me what's
really happening here so the guy did he stopped and and he went more into
detail and uh and John was satisfied he he uh he let the guy off easy so uh and
then uh let's see there's one other uh thing from the top of the mountain where
um he had his son Lauren with him John and Lauren and of course Jane was there too uh and Frank and um
he uh I don't know if I guess I took the picture maybe uh maybe uh Jane took the
picture but there's a a mirror recoding uh service up there on top of the
mountain where they take the hexagonal sections I think there's 36 of them in
the kek and they take them out and they uh um aluminize them in a vacuum chamber
on the top of the mountain so they don't have to bring them all the way down so they have all these spare uh hexagons
and they're each I think they're each two meters they were pretty big uh yeah
I think they were each two meters uh you know across so they had them lined up so
that we could get infinite John and Lauren standing there in uh uh two of
these mirrors that were reflecting each other to Infinity you've done that with mirrors right so that was kind of fun um
so uh the other thing is down on the lower
slopes the uh control room for the kek and the kek main building is that that's
not up on top so we were down there and we were touring around and
uh uh there's also uh sort of a private school and the kek people kind of had
dibs on the lecture hall sort of an auditorium and uh we were supposed to
get John there but one of the guys took him out to dinner we went also and uh and then uh I think he ran
out and we couldn't find our way back to this place well we' never been this
Hawaii Preparatory we showed up 45 minutes late and and here's an audience
of people and they're being primed for John Dobson and so this guy who was the
uh the fan from the sidewalk astronomers who is the head optician guy introduces
John when he finally shows up and he says uh uh here's um you know this guy
he means so much to me blah blah blah and he's gonna talk to us all about telescopes so John stands up on stage I
think he hopped up on the stage which was like three feet above the rest of the room and he said I will talk about
no such thing and he launches into an attack on the Big Bang I think some of you can imagine how that went and the
the kek folks were horrified that people were were were hauling their kids out of
the room so they didn't have to listen to this you know this this blasphemy and
it was uh we Jane and I were sitting there in the seats and we were laughing our heads off yeah because uh the the it
just and he didn't let up the John just kept going after him said come on he said attack me attack me you know I say
this you attack me okay give me what you think and they wouldn't say anything they were trying to like honor and
cherish and you know they weren't G to listen to him so it was very funny I
thought uh another quick one from uh we stayed in a a junkie hotel in kyou aona
if you've ever been there you can get some fairly cheap hotels down there so we were all bunked in like one room
and uh he uh oh Jee oh I know we're walking
to the hotel room down the typical streets and there's a hedge of natal
Plum and John sees a red one uh this is a real prickly uh shrub that people um
you know make into Hedges and things like that but it's all thorns and a few leaves and every once in a while there's
a fruit on so he grabs one of these red fruits and sticks it in his mouth and this all this white sap comes bursting
out and he says yeah these taste quite good he said this one's a good one so I found one and I put it in my mouth well
the white sap will seal your lip shut it's like glue and he didn't tell me
that and and it was like half an hour before I could you know open and close my mouth without difficulty oh my so was
a one of those John eats anything stories um we we went from there to uh
aahu and he gave a talk at at the local Club of course he had some
detractors I think the uh vice president at the time was a big Dobson detractor
you know he won't touch a dobsonian he has to have an equatorial Mount you know these people and uh so uh John was
staying at various houses he stayed at my place for a few days he stayed at this other guys who was polite he's
actually an Episcopal priest and he had to be polite but he did not agree with anything doson said about any subject
ever uh and so that was kind of funny uh we did one of my first sidewalk
astronomy um events when Dobson was there and I picked the wrong uh thing
there's Alam Moana Beach Park is a very big um very well-populated uh Beach
right in downtown hon Lulu and I figured well there's got to be people there sun
went down no people around so uh I I since moved right into W ke and I've
done many many uh sidewalk astronomy events right on the sidewalk in W ke but
uh I learned my lesson with John right there saying hey where are all the people we're not in the right place
so uh learn that one um also we went to a school star party with with John and
that was up in the uh higher elevations kind of in the saddle of aahu the thing
about that was that um he were supposed to set up on a tennis court and you know
what John thinks about um asfalt uh and and what it does to this local seeing so
he was kind of griping about that walking around and he's doing that thing with his hand where you've seen him do
that he holds his hand face up and then face down and if there's a difference in temperature says this is not good so I
learned that at that uh at that event U and then he would walk around and just
pick people in the crowd and ask him a question such as you've heard such as uh
oh what's a typical one um oh the Earth rise and set is seen from the Moon as
seen from any one spot on the moon and people are just stare at him like who is this guy where is he from and do I have
to answer his question and uh and then he'd say uh something like uh how long
does a day last on any one spot of the Moon and they'd go what what what and
then he'd say uh you've heard these questions another one is uh why are clouds flat on the bottom and fluffy on
top and and and they're just going so it's funny to watch the
interaction you've watched it all yourselves I'm sure so uh oh last thing
on aahu uh well I had a telescope that I was working on it was a kit I bought
from Pierre schwar and it was a dobsonian and uh I hadn't quite finished
it and he pointed to it it was in the living room I think uh when he stayed with me and he said oh I'm allergic to
telescopes that don't work you may have heard that one too so I got my
introduction to the basics and he helped me finish it and we brought it to a star party that he went to up on the
NorthShore so uh that was that was real good so that was um that was all aahu in
the Big Island uh he also went back to the Big Island at a later date to uh
work on a telescope making project again with Jane hou Houston I I think she was
Jones by then and um and uh he did his
best he he was well behaved he worked hard uh the guy who organized it uh
actually spent all of the money on the mirror blanks and the grits and had
nothing to to help these students with on building their telescopes so I built
two dobs so that John could test the optic you know you got to stick it in a
scope that you can aim before it's aluminized and uh so I went over and
helped with that and it was a great experience but uh it was kind of a we
were all under some stress we had 50 students with mirrors and no telescopes
and no way to get them and that's how this guy had left us before going on
vacation to Mexico can't even think of his name right now but uh he probably doesn't
want me too um okay well for Grand Canyon do I
have a couple more minutes yeah go ahead all right thank you um I L going there
with uh with John and every time I went there with him of course we were driving from uh either picking him up or once
from San Francisco once from uh La maybe twice from La yeah I think so but we went out
and uh on road trip and that was fun you know just having him in the car talking
away I I ran a tape recorder some of the time but tape recordings in cars on the
road are not so fun to listen to but I have it somewhere uh so we got out there
and it was like a homecoming for him he really regarded the Grand Canyon south
rim as his you know just going way back in time uh that he had been there I I
can't tell you what years he's were it was early 2000s and uh I went there three times
with him and uh uh we we did go to the north rim once twice to the south rim
once to the north rim and the north rim trip also took us to Bryce so he was at
Bryce but at the Grand Canyon he he just settled right in and everything was a
memory for him um I did I got him lost we tried to do a shortcut from Yavapai
uh cabins to Yavapai point I think through the woods and it took a little
longer than we figured and he started getting after me for getting him lost in the woods but uh everything else wasn't
just fine and lots of stories about H hiking down to the to the uh
Colorado uh and back in in a day that's like 18 miles or something you know I uh
I was dealing with a 80 9 year old guy and maybe the last time he went he was 91 something like that but uh he wanted
to hike down Bright Angel Trail uh we did it two different times the two times
that we were at the south rim and and he just chugged along down the trail he had this trick where he'd
wet a towel and wrap it around his neck that was his trick for staying cool and
it really worked well of course I did it too and we went down two hours the first time and the second year you know he was
older even and I think we only went for an hour down and an hour back but two
hours down and two hours back was uh you know that was that was quite a thing for a guy that old so as he passed everybody
on the trail he'd say how old are you or he'd say did you go down to the bottom
and and then he'd like to yell out that he was 89 and a half that time that we went for two hours
uh so he he just had a ball there he he loved every part of it uh he was a
little cranky about the uh uh Jane's not gonna like me saying this but he got
cranky sometimes about uh the uh what he said was the um uh he he got
kicked out of the the Grand Canyon that's his version and then the reason
was because he was saying that the canyon was so old and the stars were so
old and the universe was so old and some people identified with a religion
figured that was against their teaching so uh now whether that's true or not
it's it's probably partly true I think Dean ketton would know but uh uh anyway so but I think
John's original things there events there uh as he evolved the star party
were more like a uh it was sort of a a hippie esque sort of Affair and uh I
think that partly had something to do with him uh getting uh you know having
his event disallowed all right well I probably went over my time so uh thanks for
letting me share and uh back to you Donna or or Scott yeah well thanks for
sharing I enjoyed your stories yeah we're gonna take a break
right yeah you want to take a break right now and um grab a cup of coffee or a sandwich
and come back in about 10 minutes yeah 10 minutes 10 minutes is good sounds good okay we'll be back folks stay
tuned okay Mike M can you come my thing of Death Valley
and try to find some pictures for Katie on my drive Valley and we'll to
get some pictures for Katie get
the hey Donna can you hear me yeah I can yeah I just emailed you my PowerPoint
and my notes uh from this is Dave and my notes from the meeting oh good oh good
yeah and um I'll try and get those things updated it's so hard it just
doesn't doesn't take any it's an old um it's on web.com but it's the system
they use is old and they told me they could update it but I would have to manually move things and there's so many
articles there's like hundreds and hundreds of pages and I'm like one of these days
but not yet yeah I tell you the file I sent you
is pretty big I might have to put it if you if you don't get it I might have to put it
um okay like on we transfer something that's the wrong year yeah yeah
something yeah okay do you see Death Valley right
there okay that's that's only one year though there should be a Death Valley
folder okay click astronomy right
there now I go to Death Valley you know Katie has a big blue
tail yeah one of them it doesn't matter she's in the
mall keep going and I get to a good one of hers oh here that's a good one of her
hold on let me just she's gonna hold them up so I can just text them to her
an email to her okay yeah you can email click that one click that
one let
go well without the H
yeah looking for her
telescope apparently Katie didn't take her
telescope okay so go back to the other folder it
says Death Valley be a different year yeah
maybe no we just didn't take pictures yeah we just didn't take pictures of
that [Music] oh go back to there that's the last one
that give her that one right here yeah last time John went to Death
Valley that's my telescope
Donna do you know did they ever do a John Dobson day thing officially in San Francisco I know they were talking about
it yeah they did on his on his like 95th birthday I think he got a proclamation
from the city but that was like one time so I don't know I thought they might
have done a actually picked a date or something no it was just for that day I think it's John Dobson day but I don't
think it went on after that okay try La maybe Katie
let's see let's
see the sun scope pardon me we're trying to find
pictures of Katie's telescope but I can't I only put a quarter inch in
there okay well just send her those two at least she's got those two maybe just don't actually have a
telescope you don't know but I said Katie we have no pictures of your telescope I have pictures of you eating
the Salt Grass or whatever it was I have that one and I
have this one ready cry but it's from the age of real
photographs and not digital ones so and I don't bother to scan my old
ones one of you and John and isn't that what we're sending her one of her and John and
another one I don't remember no but we have but no but we have a solution for
everything Photoshop me in next to some other telescope it'll be fine yeah you're you're looking through the 18 and
then one of you and John and George walk Creek remember the day he was waving at
the lady to come to the bathroom that was a great day I tell that story often
when I'm trying to explain John to people me too I've got also Donna I think you'll appreciate I we should Su
them for for gender discrimination for what I'll appreciate
what um you know I uh met a guy I went down to the
San Diego astronomy Association oh yeah he's here Jim's on tonight he told me oh hey
Jim um I was just telling Jim while we were there because he was he was talking
to me about you and he was like yeah Donna told me that if he stinks uh just to tell him that he stinks and to go take a bath he like I
don't know if I could do that like yeah I feel you I knew him from when I
was way too young I never had that kind of reverence for him yeah like when he made me make him
those eggs that morning when he unloaded me out of the van yes yes that was another good John
story I just think the best one though is when when we were at the library you had to use gum for your second I use
dime I'm basically terrified every day I will be back in just moment I got use the
rest yeah J will be on later well how
you that's really funny you babies at bson once yeah that's really funny both
have the same thing yeah
I mean he knew Donna so and Donna is the one who organized this to find as many people who knew doson as possible
so what is Comet Electric so I am currently on my work
computer because that's the easiest laptop I have to log in on stuff so that's my company name for the company
I'm working for right now I figured it's not that weird since it's an astronomy thing nobody will question
it works well enough for me um I'm actually debating at this point I
was talking about it the other night um making a children's book about my
journey into telescope building um asks for nothing
moreor the FR Loop before now we want to get M13 M13 is a globular cluster this
is public star party this is in a national park this is where we take the telescope so that the general public can
see these things which they can't see other places and what we try to do is to show the bright objects the important
objects if you want okay please climb fast like a chimpan whose video is this
this is beautiful and it'll drift across to the lower right but you'll come down long before that so that the other
people can see you'll see Saturn to the upper right it'll look like a straw hat takes light one and a half hours to come
from Saturn [Music]
[Applause]
yeah Scott you're on mute buddy um that's right I'm on
mute I often do that I don't know why anyways um I hope you enjoyed uh your
little break and that you've been enjoying uh the uh global star party so
far with uh Donna Smith and all the friends here um and acquaintances of
John Dobson so he affected so many of us um and uh if you didn't know him through
personally and good Lord he met so many people uh you might have met him through
a a dobsonian telescope or looking through one uh through sidewalk astronomy um I know that my dobsonian
telescope definitely took me on a journey that I could scarcely imagine and then uh having met John Dobson a
couple of times uh so but uh Donna I'm gonna turn this
back over to you for the the midterm part of this H
program okay I'm here so next we're gonna go to Katie holand hogland I never
say your name correctly I'm sorry Katie was our youth coordinator for many years years and she was one of the youngest
people to build a telescope with John and she went with us for I don't know
six seven years to Death Valley so Katie go
ahead all right hi um so I'm Katie hogland don't worry nobody can pronounce my name right uh that's it's impossible
actually well there was even debate in the family so I built my first telescope
when I was 11 um fun picture I'm going to go with
my old school photographs first uh this is me and John and my dad working on building the
base so that was a fun one uh the mirror was actually given back to me aluminized
on my 12th birthday so good birthday present uh I had originally gone up and
met John because Griffith Observatory had had a program where John was going to be up there building telescopes I
knew about dobsonians I knew about Dobson and it seemed like a good opportunity to meet him he as is his
thing to do immediately threw me into mirror grinding I don't know that I had talked to him for more than a minute or
two before I had to start grinding my first mirror um I ended up taking his
telescope building workshop at the Vidant Society in Hollywood and it was a fascinating experience I did not know
what I was getting into um as a result of all of that I ended up now as a telescope operator at Griffith
Observatory I ended up later on making a scope that was always the one that Dobson appreciated most um that one he
wanted to take credit for every time was the Dobson Suns scope he loved that thing clever design too I'll give him
that one uh and then I did just recently and he would have killed me for this one
did just recently buy a 20inch dob with struts and it's got a super fancy
focuser he not be thrilled um but at least now this time
if it wasn't a strut type telescope I could sleep inside of it and carry on his legacy so I guess I'll just have to
get a sonit tube to sleep in when I'm near it couple good John stories my favorite
one is we were at Griffin Observatory was closed so we were down at our satellite Facility by the LA
Zoo Dobson was going up to I forget which vendor it is now either way I probably shouldn't say but he went up
and he was pushing on the dobsonian and it would Spin and he pushed it again and
it would spin and the poor salesman came up to him and goes well that there sir that's a
dobsonian oh no so he turned around and goes the hell it is I'm
Dobson oh that poor salesman he was not ready for that and I was like well he's
right that is Dobson in fact can't lie about that one um so yeah I don't know
what that guy thought he was going to do it this time um let's see what's another good
one honestly most of my stories because I did go to Death Valley for many years uh with John and that was always an
experience uh I suppose I can tell you how the public viewed him that's another good one uh there once was a lady who
was trying to convince her daughter to come in and listen to his ranger talk or his footwarmer as he called him and she
was sitting out there no he's he's the second greatest mind of our time that's an interestingly specific
thing I asked you know I had to ask the question well who's the first oh evil conal so evil conal or
John doson second greatest mind to evil can evil just so we're clear about this so the public loved him I guess is my
point I he second best to evil can evil not sure where that ranks on greatest minds but that's what somebody thought
for sure um but yeah it was always a good time it was interesting because like Donna I because I knew him from
such a young age I think I ended up kind of working with him with a lack of
reverence for him um and I spent so much time with him in Death Valley was one of
the good ones he uh need to tell the story the first year in Death Valley when we were all in one room in John's
sneakers oh my God yes he uh I don't now
to be fair plenty of people thought that me Donna and John were a family John was clearly my grandpa Donna was my mom and
that's why we would all stay in a room together that was a reasonable thing it wasn't because we were astronomers yeah
oh God Tim was there too um it's not like you know we're all astronomers none of us were Rich so we would just stay in
one room it was fine I guess that's weird in retrospect that a 14-year-old girl was staying in a room with a
90-year-old man but you know it's fine John would never change John would sleep in his clothes including his sneakers
and one night while he was asleep on the bed his sneakers were just rubbing together like a cricket it sounded like
a cricket it was it was the funniest
thing I think that was tsunami year wasn't it I think that was the year when the tsunami no that was the very first
year but kati's like was it was that the year when we we did have to uh escape
the long way one year because the road's all washed out that was a different that but that night you're like what the hell
is he doing I don't know and then we started giggling really hard and he's like somebody's not going to be able to
get up and build a telescope in the morning
I always got up and built a telescope whether I wanted to or not there were certainly some morning this the tsunami
year that's the year you had to ride on the cooler because we got yes we didn't plan on bringing John back and we had
him and you got to sit on the cooler and all the roads were closed and it was like a 10hour trip from Death Valley
with Katie perched in the middle really illegally on a on a cooler yeah and
that's so yeah sidewalk astronomy is definitely uh you know if they want to call it gorilla astronomy let me tell
you it can be if you do it right yeah and that's that's the year when John said um we were going back and he's like
every time I go around a curve he's like you've never rolled a van obviously Katie's like well don't roll
this one we have 62 inches of aperture in the back and John's like you counted
them counted them what else was I gonna do okay I may have been counting
aperture but John would count the uh the posts on the side of the road and tell
you how fast you were going if he couldn't see the speedometer he be counting the posts you're going 67
65 he was he was a riot it was absolutely wild to go on those trips with him because it was just such a wild
ride every time especially because I think me and Donna treated him more like a person than he was used to he was used
to people being very reverent of him he was Dobson he was the Godfather of amateur telescope making and Donna and I
knew him so well that one morning I was it was cold and it was the one year we tried camping do not camp in Death
Valley over Christmas and New Year's it is very cold um you have to come very well
prepared for that and we were not so we were sleeping in the van and whoever would wake up we'd turn on the heater in the van for a while so I was asleep
leaning up against the door on the passenger side of the van and at six o'clock in the morning John opens the
door to the van I unceremoniously tumble to the ground he goes good morning I would like my eggs
please he demanded soft boiled eggs boiled for exactly three minutes after
the water had started boiling and it was just it was the funniest thing and I think that was the one time because usually I don't mind making Jon's eggs
it was a perfectly fine occasion honestly I'm very good at softboiled eggs now um and I go John make your own
eggs I closed the door and locked it on go back to your because remember he
had a little teardrop trailer he was staying in and you're like go go back to your trailer leave us
alone and then in about an hour we were over at the we we okay we were GNA camp
and then we decided camping's not for us and we couldn't get a room until the next day is that when we went to the opera house that morning we we go over
there and they said come at 2 o'clock and it's like 8:30 and we're like did anybody check out early and they're like
okay fine I I saved a room I knew you were going to be here early and we get to the room and Katie's like rubbing the
bed going look at our bed Hotel before and then John's like so
this is our room and we're like no you have a trailer this is our
room he was okay it he would never yeah no no no and that's the thing is that John I
think uh I don't know if Donna if you mentioned it or somebody else had before I think you were mentioning it in your story with Carla that John actually
would kind of respect you more and remember you more if you did talk talk back to him sometimes if you pushed back
on him he would be a little bit snippy for a second and then he would
realize nah you know what they're right it's kind of fun to have somebody push back for once yeah it was just kind of
like treating him like a normal person sometimes that I think he liked that I mean as much as he yeah I think that he
missed it because a lot of people there was a lot of reverence for him and rightfully so he really did change the
telescope game um but he's mean yeah yeah he was he was definitely still a
human being with plenty of human Foles and all of that I know one time he had
gotten snippy with me when we were building a telescope in Death Valley because he needed a screwdriver and I bought him the wrong one or something
and so finally he asks me for the right one and I just walked away and left for a few hours I came back he had sorted it
out and hey John did you get your screwdriver oh yes thank you yes what happened to you I noticed
you got out of here yeah yeah he is he is perfectly industrious on his own he was perfectly capable on his own and I
think he appreciated occasionally doing things on his own again yeah um because it is hard as you're getting older I
mean I'm seeing this with my parents you need to still be doing the things you always did and if you're just convincing
people to do it for you then you're not really getting sometimes it was crazy remember B GTH Park one time and he said
he told someone he liked mulberries or something and they showed up with this huge bowl of mulberries he's like here
take these and I go I don't want them they're for you and he goes like what the hell am I going to do with all of these
mulberries actually that's another good one there was one year for his birthday at Griffith where they got a bunch of
Boy Scouts to sing Happy Birthday to him and instead of a polite like oh thank
you that's so sweet John didn't really have that in him he was always straight to the point he would speak his mind
goes getting old as hell those poor boys you guys spend a lot of
time with them you know I never saw him sit in a chair he always squatted do you
did you do you ever see him sit in a chair I never saw him sit in a chair ever it was very rare we would usually
have to make him sit in a chair and it was usually because we needed him to do something where he was sitting in a chair um I know one of his favorite
things to play with me was if he needed to be figuring my telescope mirror or
something like that he would make me sit back to back with him as a back rest I had to serve as a back rest for dear old
John so many times in my
childhood yeah but yeah no he was he was such a character and he was so
interesting and he had so much energy I mean I met him when he was 82 or 8383 I think I think we met
him the same year and he was yeah cuz I think it was 1998 CU that would have 1990 yeah must have been 1998 because
that tracks with my age it's much easier if you meet people when you're young to do the math I highly recommend
it the good thing about was though if if you got cranky with John or he got
cranky with you it it was like there was no residual anger or anything no no
there was never Bad Blood he still liked you just as much l yeah he didn't he called me one time when I first met him
he had been calling every day like if Bob couldn't take him to the observatory and one day I'm like leave me alone I I
don't have any clean laundry I have no clean dishes I can't do this every night and he's like oh okay I'll see you
tomorrow it was just like yeah okay fine yeah he definitely did have childlike wonder about him and it's so funny too
because he was very much so a performer um he had so many I think most
of us know plenty of the questions that he would ask um when he was trying to get you to think about things and he
would ask them and then tell you the answers with the same childlike Wonder
every single time every time um he never got bored of asking those questions of
people he never got bored of showing people space that excitement was always there there was never a day where he was
outside of normal John crankiness there was never a day where asked you something a bunch of times if you every
time he' ask you and then finally when you would reply to him correctly he would go see I knew you would get it
like you didn't just memorize it yeah see I knew you would get it and you're like yeah yeah no is my favorite one was
wire clouds flat on the bottom and fluffy on the top and to be fair I do use that one on a lot of people I know
um the reason for it by the way for those of you who did not get asked that specific John question it's because
you're getting a difference in air pressure and temperature on the bottom that's going to be a hard line and on the top it's evaporating so it gets
puffy and all of that so feel free to use that one it was one a 's favorite questions and then it rains you must
have noticed yes yes the you must have noticed
is you can't get away with that one and actually I forgot that that's where that came from because I use that one a lot
in my day-to-day spe I think he could get away with it better you can get away with it a lot
better as an old man than you can as a relatively young especially with that little accent kind of thing yeah you yes
his accent and his Cadence was fascinating I do still remember because he taught me the names the planets in um
Mandarin and in Japanese and I think also in Korean although I can't remember the Korean now um but I still
occasionally will use Jupiter and Saturn especially when I'm working at Griffith
and the other day a guy speaking Mandarin got the planet wrong he called
it and I can never get the intonation right and apparently if you get it wrong it sometimes means priest but Jupiter is
p and Saturn is musin and he kept saying mushin I was like no no noin he was like
oh oh so it's nice to have that ability to get through to people from some weird
thing that I happen to pick up from John you know at this point I guess 20 years ago yeah um he really
was very aware of the world around him and very interested in finding ways to
communicate with people and to connect with people even if he was sometimes standoffish in some ways about it or
kind of aggressive in some ways about it he always brought it back to make you feel good about it at the end I think
that's important in the way that he did it because it is kind of nice to people
don't typically get bullied into understanding science and I think that to an extent that might be something
that we need a little more of in our society I suppose that might be an unpopular viewpoint but um the idea that
no no no you have to get to the root of of the problem Yourself by thinking through it and he would force you to do
that and not relent until you thought about it now you had to get the answer he already knew and whether or not that
was always correct I don't know man I still got some beef with his is the air the same temperature in Shadows and in
Sun I don't I'm still salty about that one but you he would always make you get
to the answer and the only way to get away from that was literally to walk away from him and nobody would
so it was it was an important way to get people to think about science and think about logic in a way that made them
understand they were capable even if you felt like an idiot during the process and it was also kind of nice to let you
be comfortable with the idea that you could be an idiot for a minute and still come out at the end with a with the
correct answer that you personally thought through Katie that's a very profound
statement really I can't tell you how many people people come up to me and the
first thing they you know where I'm showing them the sky and I'm trying to interpret things for them and it's you
know I know the Tipping Point I I see the Tipping Point happen and when I hear them say Scott I want to ask you a
stupid question I know right then okay now they're exploring now they're
thinking for themselves you know yes and I don't know why they say it that way
but they do and uh that is a really uh important part you know and and that's
something that people who do Outreach educational Outreach and astronomy or
whatever okay when they hear that question yeah oh we know tune in right
then because this is this is the heart of it right there this is this is why you're there to um to uh help guide them
a little bit through through this process so yeah I I to be fair I do
often tell people that I have only ever received received one stupid question and that question was not even prefaced
with this might be a stupid question I had a person point at the moon and ask me where the moon was I was like
I I can't help I can't help there's nothing more I can do for you I think
that might have just been a misspeaking but they left after that and I was like I don't know man so I like to tell
people that because I'm like look man that is the only stupid question I've ever gotten and I've got a lot of questions prefaced with this might be a
stupid question not where's the Moon while you're pointing at it you know John had
a good one there was a couple of times during his cosmology classes where people would be trying to make a
relevant point and they were stretching so far and one lady said something one day about his equations on the board
that you know this is what my womb is doing or something no it was this is what's
happening in my womb and Hector's like I'm going to K her and everything and
then John just looks at her and goes well I only have to comment on things I know and I have no idea what you're
talking about so I have nothing to say and she just like sat there you know
and I'm like okay you know and he would just say a lot of times I have no idea what you're talking about so I have I
can't help you you know because if they were you know was usually some conspiracy theory or some alien Theory
or something like that you know they come up with that and he's just like that's not my area I have no idea
you know now I don't have to comment on things I don't know yeah no I think I
will I'm probably running out of time I don't actually know how much time we all have but I will leave you with uh one
good Dobson story about going out to eat whenever Dobson and you probably can
remember his order better than I can but I know he would always ask for very specific things including something
green in which one case they gave him frozen peas and he was happy um they didn't even unfreeze him
he said I'll just take him Frozen so he ate frozen peas and then he would always ask for a glass of the most abundant
element in the universe oxidized and I wasn't here for this one but he loved to tell the story it was his favorite story
about going out to eat where one time a waitress turned back to him and said you wants solids with
that it tickled him pink he had the greatest time with that one I don't know
that was that could have been 40 50 years ago it was his favorite thing in the entire
world yeah it was a good that story yeah he also liked butter oh my God butter
just by the spoon and eating Vitamin C powder By The Spoonful full yes he was
and carrying salt in his pocket for hikes um I know some people do that fairly consistently but man he was
adamant about the salt in his pocket if he didn't have salt he wouldn't go on a hike so we have one last story about
death valley that the last took John to Death Valley and it was after he had had
his stroke and we were at Salt Creek and he had had to go to the restroom and
we're sitting in the van and Katie looks in the rearview mirror and goes what the hell is he doing and we see him standing
by the bathroom going to this woman right so here's this
old guy with a ponytail and he's just out here in the middle of nowhere and he's like motioning to this woman it
turns out it was just there's something no no no to come into the bathroom no less to come with him into the bathroom
into like one of those pit toilets like this old creep is over there you know
and I guess it was broken or something but the toilet seat was broken and he was trying to tell her and she didn't
the woman went in with him and she didn't speak English and yeah I have no idea why she would have chosen to go in
there with him but yes the two of them went in and he was like oh the toilet seat was broken I had to tell her she didn't speak English what was I supposed to do it wasn't a language I
understood that little come here and the way he was doing it was just enough to I
said I would have just been like I would have turned my head head like I didn't see and I would have walked as fast as I
could because you know there were like two cars in the parking lot every serial
killer movie would have been going through my head I mean to be fair in one of the cars in the parking lot was a big windowless Econoline van yeah
ours well thank you so much Kitty I'm glad that you can take it you know yeah
I'm gonna have to dip out and go to sleep to get up for my construction work let get some some good um photos for next year so that you have something
that shows you really do have a telescope that you built yeah we'll we'll see if I can prove that or
not okay thank you all right thanks guys byebye so um John had a telescope that
he used for the last several years and when he was no longer using it we were
trying to figure out what to do with Tumbleweed so Peggy and I came up with this idea of her going around the the
country and taking on John's travels and piggy is going to tell us about that this is Piggy Walker again from the
Broken Arrow sidewalk astronomers Yes actually we our our city
is Broken Arrow and when it's on the map it says ba so when we call ourselves ba
sidewalk astronomer with no s it kind of has a double uncon you know to the name to it so but yeah I came out um in
2017 uh because my little sister was passing away but you and I were talking about going up to Casper and we were
going to exchange C tumble weed at that point point because we decided to fix her up and make her accessible to clubs
that wanted to have her because we didn't want her at let's say you know like at um Griffith and have somebody
see it in the closet not know what it was and Pitch the telescope because it was pretty ratty and I think most people
would have thought what is this so um so I love these pictures of John because he
actually you know this was his favorite uh sidewalk scope and I did do an article for those that are uh get the
reflector magazine for the September 2018 I actually did a a short synopsis
and um anyway so um the
first my first comment here was when I I get this telescope and I'm looking at
this thing going okay the top part has paint on it and then the bottom part is
silver and it doesn't then that the end P you know where the where the um the glass is sitting there there's nothing
it's just still the conics thing and I I struggle because I in my head I could hear John saying it was perfectly fine I
didn't need to do anything to it you know what I mean so I'm sitting here in the garage going no no no we got to fix
this up and and um but it was uh the box was so tightly wrapped around it I could
not take the box off in order to paint the tube so I kind of had to maneuver through putting plastic and stuff and if
you go to The Unofficial tumble weed you can hear my whole drama and my daily
videos of working with tumble weed in the garage in 100 degree temperature but
uh when when we when I tried to get this out of the the the van so you would get
splinters because this wood was so delaminated and splitting and in one
section there wasn't even like nails holding the panel pieces together anymore okay and so uh and I looked at
the art work and that was the one thing I knew I could do I knew I could paint the inside of the TU because that's what
I do when we make our Scopes and stuff but I wasn't sure how to fix this wood and that was my first introduction to
wood putty and the one thing that really kind of was really the the comforting
thing was the I sent you pictures Donna to the group and I forget who the man was that actually painted the tumble
weed and the morning glory on the side of this and because I really wanted to
honor that person and the thing was is see how bad it was there was so much pitted wood in there I had to really um
sand it down and I was losing some of the main artwork and it really was kind of scary I didn't want to not have it in
there but um the gentleman said I am over the guy said he actually
had tears in his eyes because he said it looked brand new to him like when he did the artwork and so to me that was like
the best thing ever but you know so here's the tops of the the spots where
you would have the um um the Rocker Box sit on top of that but
I mean look at how how damaged that was and how worn down it was so I had to actually do some construction to it and
you can see where this the mount actually was na supposedly nailed in you can see how many layers of that wood are
missing and how deep that those U crevices were and kneading nails and
things like that so um it was it was really difficult I mean I had to sit here and wrap my brain around it and use
wood putty which I'd never used before for and then of course the bottom of the tube was very fanned out from moisture
and so I got some Elmer's Like Glue allall really thick glue and I just put
tons and tons and tons of glue around it and put the paper clips around it and now it's kind of got like a little bit
of a an a lip to it or things like that so it it does seem to hold up better and
so here I am showing you how I had to tape the body tape the the tube so I didn't get the pain on the other side
and so if you really if you do get the scope in your Club if you look down the sides there really isn't paint all the
way down because I couldn't get the tube all the way out so and I remember having a talk with Donna and she goes whatever
you do we cannot have a white telescope John hated white telescopes so uh anyway
so we decided on uh cappuccino was the tube and then vanilla Stone was the box
and then the flat midnight black or midnight stroll whatever was on the inside and and so um this was really a
project that was really B you know kind of like therapeutic for me because of the fact my sister had passed away and
I'm in the garage it was just so calming to do this even though I didn't even know what the heck I was doing and um
Kent Frank actually had the the mirror uh aluminized and I put the gentleman's name on the bottom and so Kenneth
actually did that and gave it to Donna so it kind of was a little bit of a group you know project here but you can
kind of see that I'm just in the in the garage just sanding my heart out
and here's kind of the the final project you know and it it really turned out
very beautifully and I like I said I was just enamored by it but I had a lot of
fun I've given her a Persona so if you go to the to the Facebook page you know I'm having conversations with with her
saying it's so hot in here and I had the plastic around the tube I I would have thought that you know it was like her
being in a SAA why didn't she lose some weight why didn't the box just slide off her like weight at a at a fat Farm or
something and so I have such really random silly um things on the on the um
an official tumble be Facebook but as soon as we got her done so we're looking at 2017 looking at total solar eclipse
right we had an event at a the um called the Ancient Forest here and so we took
her as you can see in the bottom left there there's our whole lineup of of Dos and so Tumbleweed came there with this
and you know John's common about get the Scopes to the kids they'll know what to do look at these kids there in the
center L you know what to do mind you does not have an it does not have a
spotter scope on it but they already knew how to get down and line it up to the Box the guy on the right hand
side and comes up and we we're talking about dobsonians and I said this is John Dobson he like are you kidding me shut
up I said no and he said I've just been reading about John doson all day I want
to buy a telescope and I saw John Dobson and I come here and it's John so John Dobson touched this Telescope yes he did
he took it in a wagon wherever he went the guy just was ballistic and so you can see he laid on the ground he spent a
lot of time with tumble weed and it was it was really pretty movie and that somebody actually knew John and that was
in their you know mid 20s early 30s right uh this is our usual uh Usual
Suspects you know we've got her special spot in the truck and and this particular night uh Rick went ahead you
can see him in the center there to take an image now mind you when people get this scope and they realize that the eye
pieces are made from plumbing parts cardboard masking tape and little lenses
in there and people are freaked out going wait wait wait wait so there's no wait no focuser thing or how do you
adjust it so you have to actually pull the eyepiece towards you or away from you you know in the original back in the
day old school type of thing and so this was an image at Rick choke so it is the the view from tumble wheat is still very
very good we have um we went um she went to
the astronomy club at Tulsa and so um it was kind of funny because there was a lot of people around here and this
little girl I put this picture in because usually people don't let you touch telescopes and we're different
when we do sidewalk astronomy which is why I really know that that's really organically I'm about because we bring
all those jobs and we'll show people things and oh it's out of the eyepiece we say okay now hug my scope you know
look at the bullseye put the thing back on the bullseye versus people not allowing them to touch anything and so
this girl on the top right corner she just wanted to touch touch and I said you can touch her because everybody kept
saying No don't touch her I'm like no you can touch her so here we are doing something contrary and um what was funny
is a guy from the Tas uh Aaron Space Museum you know he took her and you can see in the top right corner he showed
her a movie about Hubble so if you go through the the U the Facebook page you
have to have humor because I made a humorous uh we go to okex and uh that
was her first star party she went to and so you know the eyepieces are there people were just were just blown away
that how good this scope worked with the eyepieces and of course if you go to the
Facebook page you I'm showing her in the in the shower but anyway so I kind of we I joke around quite a bit about her but
so she comes back from moex and the St Louis slash St Louis Astronomical Society says okay we'll
take her and so um I had Jim small actually had see she's the first picture
she's in Uranus Missour isn't that it was so hysterical and then the Hubble
Museum so she's there at the Hubble Museum and then she's there doing sidewalk at the at the St Louis Arch and
so I had you know when the clubs get them that that her my goal is to have them you know send me pictures so I
could put them on the the official Tumbleweed because people were like what happened to tumble weed I'm like no
one's sending me pictures I don't know how the hell can you do this so and the guys sometimes are just too busy they just you know so here she is in Kansas
so we actually on the way up to um the um Eclipse we stopped by the turnberg me
Museum which had a lot of um dinosaurs in it and then on the way home we went
to the cosmodome and that's where she's looking at that and then she did EV she spent some time at the um Astronomical
Society of Kansas City but what was heartbreaking a little bit was that I
said no you cannot alter this telescope by any way because leave it you know pure like John used it and somebody
there put a spotter scope on there and put holes in them like oh my God so
anyway so when she got came back I had to patch her up and do some cosmetic surgery on her and stuff but um you know
it it's amazing when people look at that and go John use this without an eyepiece I mean without a spotting scope yeah
yeah he used the edge of the box and so it really makes people rethink how we kind of are spoiled as astronomers with
all this beautiful equipment we can buy so here we are in Casper and of course she spends times with the guys at
explore scientific and then that was her first Alcon would you and her first Midstate Regional was also at explor
scientific so there she is with Scott's uh room over there and from there she went to we were
taking her up to um the Casper and so this lady was so nice to let tumble we
play her daughter in a game of checkers but we stopped by uh this um place is in
Colorado and it's a buffalo motel and it's it's from the 1920s and this family
went in bought it and you know upgraded it but the woman was getting a lot of
flack about her kids because they were pull they're they're in this um the sub area from the main area of of
Colorado and she called out a flak and somebody said to her you're going to
meet a lot of really wonderful interesting people are going to come through this motel and your kids are not going to be able to have that in school
in a in a you know regular Public School somewhere and so when we brought out Tumbleweed and explained the whole
concept of sidewalk astronomy and John Dobson the woman had tears in her eyes and she said I can't wait that tell my
family look at these people they touched a scope of a guy who was like almost 80 years old who started this whole thing
and it was very moving you know what I mean that this family just said wow this is why we do this and thank you for TR
you know bringing out your scope so it was just it was just staggering how how received she was and here we are playing
around so we're at the um Casper at the convention center so the lady was sweet
and uh gives tumble her own uh door you
know key and then I I got a sh from Fred espac as you buy any stuff from Freddy
gives you a T-shirt and so I joke on the on the p on her Facebook page I went tell excuse me you're bored my shirt
didn't even ask you know and this couple to the right actually came in from the UK to do observing but they did know
about John doson so you just never know you know what I mean when you're when you were um and the funny thing is if
you can see she's wearing eclipse glasses on you I don't know if you can see that or not she's got eclipse
glasses I mean she was watching the eclipse very safely we went through the um the vendors and uh go to the Facebook
page because there were some very very moving uh videos that I caught and
people were like one guy was likeing tears because he missed drwn so much and this particular gentleman I'm sure you
guys know who he is I forgot his name huh Christopher go Christopher go so he
goes and images um he's like a Fred espac and they were just blown away
being able to meet this telescope in the center there we have uh Mike Simmons from astronomers Without Borders and
there's there was tons more images but they're on the the Facebook page the guys on the right were from Italy they
came in all way from Italy for this uh totality and they walk in and go oh the
be beautiful I mean they were the whole Italian accent and they were blown away and you can see them SWAT like I can't
believe this is Dobson's and they spent so much time with that scope they knew who John was knew who the scope was and
it just Bloom away the out of Y Casper who knew that Tumbleweed would be there
the um Omaha Society uh got her and they had her for two years with not you know
having any conferences to kind of exchange and bring her back into to Broken Arrow so
some of these photos are from last uh Nebraska star party and that's their their Dome area there their classroom
and then we brought her back this year so the top left and the top right are from we just got her back in August from
from uh Omaha they they did a great job um promoting her and they they they
really enjoyed having her so it was it was really nice that they took it care of her they really did and then here is at the winter star
party down in Florida and so this one was really particularly moving as well
because that particular year they actually spread the ashes of tipid there
at the the middle of section and to the right it's called the land of the dogs and so that morning I think Scott and
and a few people went over there and and did that and so then we got you know we put her over there and people said yeah
bring her in and we'll take pictures with her so it really was kind of moving because it was just it's not even just John it's these other notable people
like Tippy you know what I mean and um converging you know I mean it was just a very very powerful uh time at least and
it's it's interesting to take the scope around and hear stories from people and so this is the official uh unofficial
tumble Beed uh Facebook page and like I said I post the most outrageously crazy
things and we were at Nebraska and I we were playing Uno I was playing Uno with her you know and and people are just
laughing and right now it's really kind of if you can't have fun with John Dobson scope tumble weed then you're doing it wrong and she's right here she
wants to say hi I can't see because she got okay I when I get done we'll have her say hi to you after she's right here
um but if you want if your Club wants to have tumblebee uh in your club we will
figure out how a way to get you there get hers there to you so you can contact me at B uh broken Aros side rock
astronomer uh we have a phone number a Google number you can email me and we'll try to connect you up and you will get a
a board with um all the pictures you know before and after and you'll get the actual eyepieces with her so um let me
know if you interested in doing that so when we started doing ATM the main thing
that we are known for is our our f8 8
inch which we now call Moon killer because the the views were better than
our 12inch zumel okay that could even be a thing we have a cter Optics in this one and this was our very first build
we've ever done and the p job on there was brand new but if you were to look at
the I'll show you here it's kind of you know peeling and it looks like a regular sidewalk astronomer one that that Donna
had at her store because it's been through a lot um I remember getting this set of print this from uh when we went
out to California and met up with the U actually Rick was on a a business trip
and met Bob alaran at the park and that's how we got connected with Donna
and the sidewalk astronomers and so and I was was born in Rainer North Hollywood I drove by her shop to go to the high
school Bob alorian lived a couple blocks from the high school where I went so it was very very interesting you know all
my stomping grounds but we got this set of plans right here and when I get done
I'll show you that the sidewalk astronomers were so uh benevolent because they gave us parts to make this
uh Suns scope and we use this all the time and you can see here the top part
is yellow that's the part they gave us they gave us the two-way mirror which is the big slanted part we had to get the
um welders glass for that but Bob gave me the a mirror that he ground it's not
aluminized it's just this little 4 inch glass and on the side of it it said
1968 and I'm like dude I was like eight years old when you did this you know and he said I want to give this to you no no
no no I can't take that from you no no no you must have this no no no so back and forth and Donna goes just get over
it take it you're not going to win okay so I'm like okay we got grit we got all
kinds of things so then we came home and we actually did some grinding uh at his house so um and this is going into
something kind of exciting where in 2017 I uh was asked to fill in for a slot for
youth that was vacant for about 10 years and at the conference up in in the
Casper I made a comment I said well why are you not doing something for families
and youth where the whole family could be together so while the adults are in one place why can't kids be doing
something astronomy or stem and so if you look at the scope you can tell you
know do you guys knows know what manufacturer that is do you know who made this looking at the alude altitude
bearing any guesses that would be Rob terer Rob terer was elated when I said I
want to bring telescope making into uh Al's conferences or national conferences
so he got with me and um he put the we put this this is called the tiny Tater
telescope so um but you'll notice he did some beautiful Dove Tales these are made out of um the B uh Baltic Pine or Baltic
Russian Baltic Birch or whatever it is and all the pieces are going to be laid out he's he will uh ship those to me at
the um Hotel so if you are an ATM person and you would like to get families and
adults to um make Scopes we're going to be at New Mexico Albuquerque in 2022 and
our goal is to get ATM up and running again back you know I thought wow a goes
in and has these conferences all over the United States so could you imagine if all of the sidewalk astronomers and
the atmr in that area rally together and we just would leave these telescopes in
that region of the United States I think that would be a really profound um thing so here again you can get a hold of me
there uh I made John a blanket and I on the back of that I thanked him for bringing astronomy I mean I didn't we
talked off and on but we didn't have as much fun maybe as Donna and Katie had
and um but we were on the street there with um him and Jane Houston and that
particular night U because up in that part of California on Colorado Street in
P Pasadena kind of in glandor and uh there's a lot of asan families that live
there it's just a pocket where they live and there was a lot of um kids that were
Asian walking by and John was speaking mandra to somebody and this this guy leans in and he's he stopped he goes
it's some old dude speaking some gibberish to somebody I mean we don't
need to stop and I went excuse me and I said I kind of pushed him toward I said
this man is like you know 95 and he's speaking bandar because he was born in Beijing and and he is one of
the top uh astronomers as far as teaching people how to make scopes for
themselves and getting it into the hands of the population he went are you serious yeah so he winds up talking to
John I see him walk away and he's like well that was really intense so you know just looking at John you know he's this
rambling old guy but not realizing what kind of an impact he had this and so I'm
just gonna show you real quick the um we have the if you don't if you've never
seen the um here's tble weed she's got her own
she always gets her name tags when she goes to Star parties so she's ready to go if you want to get a hold of me we'll
go ahead and do that of course we've got our um ba sidewalk astronomer I painted
our logo on it but once we were looking we have better views in this than our 12 inch right so on the back side of it we
now call it Moon killer so it has a whole another name to it and then we also have this sun scope which is all of
the parts that you guys blessed us with you gave us the mirror you gave us the upper part and we finished it off uh
this weekend we're celebrating astronaut Stuart Rosa who was born in Claremore would be the sun
scope will be at the Claremore High School and we're gonna be doing solar observing so we basically this would be
like our third or fourth scope we have actually made so I think it's something that is very very great for families to
do when you learn about Optics and things when you do that and I do have two glasses from that Donna gave me when
John moved from uh San Francisco down to Hollywood you want these two glasses so
they to be ground and I keep getting asked did you grind those yet no I did not you know so part of me is like I
don't want to because they were John's you know but they're not doing any good and piggy Andy's looking for some
glass they're 4 inch yeah but anyways but yeah you know
what I'm talking about it's just it's just a thing you know what I mean because you guys really gave us a lot of stuff and it really was very meaningful
and that's why we like to we like the aspect of Cyro astronomy because it is
about people and one other quick testimony was going back to John's quote you know give the Scopes to the kids so
know what to do we have a little we had a little 4 inch Orion was given the tube didn't have a base we built the base I
painted it with constellations we get a girl that shows up with her neighbors she loves astronomy she's asking for a
telescope the parents buy her a plastic Periscope and I just wanted to go slap
her parents her parents weren't there but in my heart I wanted to slap her parents Christmas birthday Christmas
birthday nothing nothing nothing and so I just turned to Rick and I said what do we have in our Reserve that we can give
this girl and so this girl is starting to have a meltdown the neighbor is like oh my God you can't give away I mean you
don't even know her so I run home I get 4 inch her name was Connie because I had
the constellations on it and so I get out the truck and we hand her the the you know thing with eye pieces and the
spotter scope we pull it out and the first thing she says is she knows the
constellations she said she's going to take it and put it in her treeh house she has an observatory now so she
knew exactly what to do with the scope so you know John had statements and you kind of thought oh he's just you know
blowing smoke no that's a truthful statement right there she knew exactly you needed to go up into her Treehouse
so I'm just saying so I'm really well I mean to be involved with this organization it means a lot to us and uh
the club in our area is 200 people uh when they get any go hey come to our
school go to the library go to you know whatever they don't even do the Outreach
like that so they call us so we go and you know have telescopes will travel so
basically our life is basically a sidewalk astronomer and we're just we're really glad to be involved with this
organization means a lot so that means that we made a really good investment you did you did yes so I would um I
would like now to um kind of do a little update on the the schedule because I know we put Katie and we move some
people around so next we're gonna have Maria and then Dean and then Jim okay so if you guys have an idea when you're G
but thank you Peggy and Rick because Peggy did so much work with tumble weed and I mean otherwise it would have just
been sitting the other option somebody wanted to go to Griff with Park and Tony's like well you can store here we
don't need we don't need to store it there we all have our own Scopes it's not like we're going to drive up there and use it you know and it just seemed
like it I couldn't think of another way to get it out in the public and I I think that what you've done is is amazing well but you gave you came up
with the idea of mve to the clubs where John was yeah know I mean and they well
I heard too that they where the when they would talk about this they actually started talking about when John was in their Club so
EXA well you know what I would really hoped was that it would you know John energized clubs to do sidewalk and to do
public Outreach and I thought maybe having tumble weed there could kind of maybe re-energize some those clubs I
hope I hope we get some more PE I get some more takers you know she hope so she ready to travel I'm just saying so
so next we have Maria bbo who um John had a science fiction book that was called the Moon is new and she helped
him with that and published it she's also if he has I I would say she's his
biographer and um I know that um John was very very fond of Maria and we were
gonna we had some kids from Ukraine Dennis should be on later if he's not on yet and we were gonna go up to San
Francisco when we went to um yose for his last trip to Half Dome and when I
told him Maria was going he was just like okay good so
Maria so your turn okay thanks um yeah I think uh
the reason he liked me so much is because I like to hear him
talk so I I would just have endless questions for him and he was he was he
always wanted an audience um and he always wanted to to feel like somebody was interested in
cosmology um learning I think you know we we sometimes were were more practical
about things you know like okay we'll talk later we got to do this or what ever and yeah and we really weren't that
interested Katie and I and you you definitely really were and I think well
he like that that you were interested yeah well so the thing is is
that what I wanted to say was that when people did ask him questions it was usually about astronomy that's how
everybody knows him as as an astronomer but he saw himself as a a
cosmologist um so I I I wanted to talk about uh that and I want to also play
some uh video files if it's okay there's there's no issue with videos being
played it's a JD I call them JD talking um so I met JD in about
1993 and um the way that I met him was actually at the Vidant temple in
Hollywood and I was interested in Vidant and uh someone introduced me to the
Vidant Temple and he was giving his cosmology classes there and um so I met
him at the cosmology class um he taught
cosmology because he wanted people to understand the nature of the universe
and of reality and um he felt that telescopes
was a way to get people interested in the universe and
reality uh he saw so much behind the universe and reality uh that you know we just don't
think about we don't consider uh reality and
um and uh why we're here what's our
purpose you know those kind of things and people don't like to hear about those kind of things uh he would say
that people don't like to hear about those kind of things because that starts to get into the religious realm so um
people just kind of frown and shake their heads oh yeah okay here he goes with his religion he's crazy old monk
he's you know mysticism oh you know um and he would say the reason people do
that is because of uh the uh you know
uh what do you call it the um the Spanish Inquisition the you know
everything against science Rel when when the Catholic church was you know
basically in control of the modern world and scientists like Galileo were being
you know persecuted so he says it makes sense why you know the astronomers and
the scientists you know they really don't want to hear about uh reality and
uh the universe in that regard unless you're talking about the big bang or black holes or something that you know
acceptable in scientific uh communities so um so I wanted to say
that um that's really what JD was interested in by the time I met him uh
he had you know done all the astronomy stuff he had uh you know started
teaching the cosmology and when I met him he said this is where I really want to focus I really want to focus on
cosmology everybody still wants me for astronomy but I really want to focus on cosmology and I was very taken with um
Vidant and I was very taken with cosmology and I I love the way that he
was able to explain quantum physics to a 21 year-old who knew nothing about
science and make it so exciting and so I thought what can I do about this you
know what what can I do and he handed me this cardboard box full of loose pages
that were um his original manuscript for the Moon is new which is the book that I
helped him published so this is the moon is new and um as you can see it has a
photo on the front which one of his friends helped him make that has no foreground Stars uh in front of the
Galaxy in deep space and um if you want to know why it has no foreground Stars
you have to read the book um so um he said uh it took us many years to
write the Moon is new because um he he was not familiar with things like
computers he refused to carry a cell phone when I gave him the cell phone he
just uh put it aside you know so I could help him edit is why I gave him the cell
phone when he was trying to use the computer uh he would say what do I poke
you know and I'd say well poke the button that has the letter L you know so
it it was a it was definitely an interesting experience trying to work with JD um
using a laptop but so it took us a long time to finally you know edit down and
edit down the the book but by the time he was done he said
this is pretty much the closest I'm ever going to come to having an autobiography
because a lot of people always asked him for an autobiography he was already in
his 80s he was um you know getting up there and so everybody wanted an
autobiography they wanted to know you know all about the sidewalk astronomers the history and all of that and so this
book is the closest that he has to an autobiography
um when we were trying to publish the book he um we we went to Rick fan at
Rick fineberg sorry at uh sky and telescope and he said I'll make a deal
with you if you give me the rights to an autobiography I'll publish your moon is new your your sci-fi book um and JD was
like uhuh not going to happen I'm not going to have anybody write my biography
who would change it you know and uh put things in there take things out so this
is the closest his autobiography I videoed him for many many
hours um talking about his life uh because because it because just in case
I said let's just you know in case we can get somebody else to do an autobiography for you to publish an
autobiography for you and they they don't edit it unless you you know give them permission uh so he he enjoyed
talking anyway you know but um so I've got lots and lots of hours of him
talking about his personal life and uh and astronomy and everything and maybe
someday I will write his biography uh it's still in the works
um but uh so what I wanted to do let's see
oh yes so um I wanted to play some
files of him reading the book and also a couple of files of me interviewing him
see video settings share
screen hello uh does anybody know how to share
the screen needs a little help yeah yeah let me let me help you out there um um at
the bottom of your Zoom um app is a green button it says share screen okay oh hello see that so
before you share okay you start actually actively sharing if there's sound
there's a checkbox on the left and you'll see it says share system sound or
something like that okay okay sound um you click that on uh okay and then you
pick not your desktop okay you'll see there's different pictures up there you pick the app that you want to share okay
so point you pick the PowerPoint app okay now something I'll caution you on
is if you have a program with video you you mentioned at some video if it's something Johnny Carson because he was
on Johnny Carson no Johnny car yeah you can't you know no it's just me interviewing him and uh that's it the
video is just me interviewing him and then I have an audio of him reading the book yeah beautiful that's great
okay I can do this I apologize I should have tried first but I had to cram it in I I work
in the evening we'll teach you
how uh let's see
JD aha okay so here is me interviewing
JD and asking him uh how
he started in vant okay can you see it I
can see the it's kind of freeze frined but yeah okay the video yeah there's me
all right here we go I told you what happened to me when I
first heard the man talk I I was an atheist but it was sudden that I gave it
up all I had to do is to hear the man talk and I I gave it up being of atheist
you see so that was in February 1937 and uh by
1940 I was seriously interested in doing something about it so then I went and
talked to him and he sent me back to the university and after I graduated from
the University uh I had to do War workor cuz I'm not a
girl okay I never was a girl referring to
reincarnation wait that I that I recall anyway so uh so then after about
a little over a year of doing that I got attached to my job the Manhattan job the
Manhattan Project World War II I got attached to
it and I thought damn it all I got to get out of here I'm getting attached to this thing and so I asked Swami again if
I can join the monastery and this time he said yes and so then through a double
interview with the FBI I got into the monastery that was in 44 I came in 37
went to talk to him in 40 joined graduated from the University
in 43 and joined the monastery in
44 now I was in the monastery for a while but you remember Swami sent me
back to the university for no I was in the mon for a while uh I was in the
monastery for a while before Michael fell came down from
Canada see if I can fix this hold on he came on has two
computers oh I'm so so sorry about that let's see
no I think someone else was listening to it on oh I see or Facebook if you're on
if you're watching on anything you have to have your audio off yeah all of you that are not speaking right now please
mute okay please mute Ken
Frank Ken Frank hi mute
yourself hi hi hi I don't know if you can see me or not
it's pretty dark I can see you you're in the dark can you mute yourself I'm trying to play a video tell you can
speak okay that's good all right thank you okay let's see now let's go
back here we go okay I think I didn't click optimize for
video clip there we go okay let's try that
all righty so uh so that was JD talking about getting into
Vidant and then um he and giving up being an atheist which he he started out
as an atheist um now here's him describing his cosmology Theory it's it's very very
shortened so you know
sure I look very bored there but it's CU I'm concentrating anyway um shinger in
that little book quite his life he makes that very clear that a living that a living organism has to direct a stream
of negative entery upon itself now in order to be alive you have to be able to direct a stream of negative eny yourself
in order to have a species survive you have to be able to pass on the genetic C
okay these are two different problems to be alive is one thing to pass on the genetic code is a different thing Al
together anyway so both of these things are involved in the origin of life now the interesting thing about the
universe being alive is that after the stuff recycles it's all wound
up it's direct a stream of negative entry find itself yeah that's what I was going to ask you not only that but it
does the recite it does the replication too you see whatever it was by the time it gets to the Border it comes back as
hydrogen okay so the whole universe does both
replication and directing a stream of negative ENT upon itself I think it's
too funny you see and it's also true as I see it that if the universe didn't do both of these things we wouldn't
either if the universe wasn't directing negative entropy upon itself the
universe wouldn't be all wound up like this and we wouldn't be here talking okay to me that's terribly
interesting that if the universe weren't alive we wouldn't be I had never thought about this until
recently about the last year and a half or
so okay and here's the second piece of
that
I can't hear
anything now Maria you may have to who can't hear anything me and Z you can't
either you can't hear it no no no you need to stop sharing I think you're
still on the last video uh oh really
yeah oh dear hold on a second so you haven't been hearing
anything this whole time no no no just the last part just the last clip the second part oh
boy hold on a second you've had three Clips the the third clip we didn't see
or here I'm so sorry no it's okay
uh know how to get it to
stop can you hear it now yes oh I can oh I can hear you but not the clip not the
clip there we go oh dear and share the sound
of that third clip share the sound of the third clip
H you so you could see you could see something but you couldn't hear something you saw the end of the last
video you showed Oh let's see
okay so I need to share screen again mhm share
sound and then see if I can play it
again I had never thought about this until recently about the last year and a half or so
yes soami somewhere said that it's a alive the whole universe is
alive and I might have heard him say that even with his own mouth but I
wouldn't cross my mind in those days what it means now you see I can see oh that's
what it means it directs a stream of negative ENT itself and it's sension and
and the replication does it does all the replication see the two things that
living organisms do they stay alive and they pass on the genetic programming
that's called replication got to repeat those chemicals got to duplicate those
chemicals that's done by the DNA now the universe does it by the by the recycling
see anyway they say there are three things that you have to have to be alive have
to direct the stream of negative Ed oh first you have to have a a a a boundary between inside and outside between me
and not me okay that's a membrane for a living organism is to membrane for a
cell you got a membrane okay so the difference between in and out okay so the universe does that too this is a
membrane out there the Border okay and there's a difference between in and out okay anyway so that's there and the
replication and directing of negative entropy is there and replication is also
there because by the time the stuff are recycled in it's all hydrogen again or maybe hydrogen and
helium anyway I think that's too
interesting way too interesting that if the universe didn't do this we wouldn't
either and you see that's my objection to the Big Bang the Big Bang doesn't have any recycling mechanism in there at
all it's just a wound up watch and it's been running down for 15 billion years
and they think it's still going no way no way not only that but all the ne
entropy was in that little tiny thing that's smaller than an atam and it was already scrambled to hell because it's
too hot because it was too hot because it's too hot it's scrambled to hell because
it's too hot if if they if it's hot they're going everywhere all righty uh can you hear me
yeah do we have time for uh him to read the beginning of his book or do we need to move
on Donna sorry I was muted yes I think we
do we do yeah yeah it's just a few minutes right yeah okay yeah
see
yes I only have four more we'll have Dean Jim Bill and Dennis so I think and
we'll have to have a break in here I'm sure so we're good
sorry sorry still we're still looking at the
last part of your last video so you haven't heard anything yet not yet wow
it does it every time okay okay yeah uh have I'm no good at this apparently
let's see share screen share
screen you have to unshare first you are already sharing stop share there you go
okay and [Music] then share screen share sound I wish I
could share the video it's such a name
um you can't yeah I just can't figure it out I
got to learn how to do it so when you click on share you're GNA see a bunch of different options there
okay you should video up there as an individual Square okay yeah I clicked on
that click on that and then you hit the then you commit to sharing I did but it
it didn't do it let's
see so this is like about a five minute clip yeah five or six you know we can
skip it because I'm I'm I'm having technical challenges um we can skip it h there are
a few things I wanted to say about JD though okay yeah do that yes can I do that yes can you see me okay yeah yes
okay so um so so I do have uh before uh JD aluminized
his mirrors he silvered them so I have a silvered surfaced
mirror uh that I want to donate somewhere and I don't know if I should donate it to the Smithsonian or who if
anybody knows where I should donate it let me know and uh somebody said JD didn't want
a penny for his uh telescope design
um as long as I knew JD all he had was his Social Security he would actually sleep on the grass in a park if he
didn't have someone to sleep with as he traveled around giving his lectures and uh one one time I went to
an astronomy convention with him when the book first was published the Moon is new was first published and people would
come by and say oh he must be so rich oh you're making so much money off of your telescopes and your books
you know just get out of here or whatever you know type of thing and and he wasn't making a scent on any of it um
and I'm still selling the the Moon is new on uh Amazon and I'm I'm uh charging
like five bucks um and uh let's see what else that I want to say oh yes about how active he
was at 90 after he had his stroke when he was in his early 90s um
he we took him to the emergency room and he
um he he wanted to show the doctor how he was still able to run so this is like
right after his stroke he's still kind of a little dizzy he goes out in the emergency room parking lot and runs up
and down the parking lot a few times and when the emergency room doctors uh took
his Vital Signs they said he and and his labs and everything all of his levels and stuff they said he had the body of
someone in their 20s um the health of someone in their 20s
um also about that he talks about one time he was he was out doing sidewalk
astronomy he was in his 50s and he said some guys came up to him and and uh and
they were huffing and puffing after hiking around and stuff and they were in their 30s and uh he had his shirt off doing
you know sidewalk astronomy whatever he he he was doing in one of the national parks and um he kind of chuckled at them
and they said oh yeah wait till you get to be in your 30s he's actually in his 50s um they
couldn't tell um he also told me that in his 80s he would run up and down
Griffith uh Griffith Park and he was very embarrassed that in his 90s he
could only walk and Hike you know for hours in in Griffith Park um CU he was
so out of shape um anything else I I think that's
it okay I think that's all I have you know just before he had his stroke he would walk from the vidon society up to
the observatory and the the theant society is near Kanga and Franklin in
Hollywood so he would walk probably I don't know it's probably three miles with m one mile of it at least uphill
really a lot so yes it was definitely something to be
said about keeping moving as you're uh you age you know and um uh there's a
quote about from him about um staying active and uh um I'll try to find it uh
so that I can read it on on this program but uh uh I found many of his quotes
very inspiring you know and uh so well I can't remember exactly right now but I
know he was going to the observatory once and it had been raining and the water was running down and maybe bill or
Maria know but that inspired one of his papers you know and I thought that's
just kind of like the perfect example of somebody here that was in their their late 80s early 90s taking this you know
Four Mile Walk or whatever and when they're pondering this water trying to make its way to the ocean I think it was
about resistance or something that the whole universe is built on Resistance and um it's just most of us would never
think about any of this we wouldn't be walking up there in the first place at that age and we wouldn't be pondering
the universe frustration was his word frustration yes frustration okay okay so
next I want to go to Dean ketton Dean's still here
right yeah I'm still here okay good been waiting a long
time well I don't have anything to share no pictures no videos that's okay
nothing up my sleeves memories Donna I've got to admit as many times as we've
talked uh and corresponded I don't think we've ever met have we no no no somebody
else always handled the handoff of the Russian kids yeah yeah yeah I was never me yeah yeah anyway a different story
for different time uh my name is Dean ketton I
uh uh first cross PA L joh on I didn't meet him at the time but uh the year was
1980 uh I was a newly uh uh declared undergraduate major in astronomy I just
gotten a job at the national observatory in kit Peak and uh after 10 months on
the Mountaintop uh observing with the 4 meter telescope and uh teaching
astronomers I was working working with astronomers as a technician uh but I I did get to observe
with the for meter up in the Prime Focus cage uh having fun stuff like that anyway I made my first trip to the Grand
Canyon and it happened to coincide when the San Francisco sidewalk astronomers
were there and uh there's this little man who gave a a Twilight talk uh that I
distin ly remember uh because I saw it again about 10 years later uh at the
Grand Canyon well I'll get to that in a minute anyway uh I think I'd heard about
John I was a religious subscriber to Sky telescope but uh I don't recall placing
him as that person uh but I remembered that I wanted to visually look through
the 24 in at M13 which of course had a seemingly 50 foot tall step ladder to
get to the uh looking at the Zenith where uh M13 was and of course when
you're that high you're halfway to the Stars already so they seem that much much clearer uh but I was amazed at the
view of course the 4 meter telescope uh is not optimized for visual observing
even at the Prime Focus cage with the plate holder out you have an image of the sky but it's not like looking
through an eyepiece and I was truly amazed with that view of M13
so anyway fast forward uh 10 years uh I'd sort of forgotten about John and the
son well I he he lit a spark certainly because I was more involved with with
Outreach in Tucson uh I set up star parties uh I set up a telescope at the
football stadium at the UVA I called it a star party for 55,000 and people as they file into the
game the games in Tucson are usually the evening and I'd have when when there was a crescent moon out or Saturn I'd set up
a telescope and they could see it on the way in and people were really impressed uh if they were sober enough to look
through the eyepiece uh anyway uh 10 years later uh 19 90 I talked my
girlfriend into marrying me and we got hitched in Vegas and uh honeymooned at
the canyon on the on the way on for a cross country road trip and we stopped at the Grand Canyon and I set up I have
some big Battleship inors 20 by 20 by10 Battleship inors on a dobsonian mount uh
and uh I set them at The Rim I had just gotten them from a friend of mine who just acquired them uh World War II
vintage so they were at the time they were 50 years old and uh set them you
can see people walking at the bottom of the canyon you can see what color shirts they're wearing uh read the names off
the river rafts was really amazing and we turned around there were you know 20 people in line wanting to look through
them and we said you know we should invite a few friends up for our anniversary next year and uh have a star
party and uh have a public star party with a few of our friends from the Tucson Club anyway I asked the Rangers
uh whatever happened to the uh sidewalk astronomers and the fellows who used to set up there and they didn't really know
but they hadn't seen him in years uh and so I asked if we could start a star
party and uh they said yeah we can do that let's we'll plan it for our
anniversary which is the following May of 1991 and uh the ranger that was assigned
to us he looked into it and he and and I got his side of it uh John had offended
uh the tourists at kit Peak I know uh Barry was asking ear about he wasn't
sure quite what happened well I have the story both from the Rangers and from John uh and his slideshow uh one of the
slides if any of you have seen it uh it's the it's a slide of Walden Pond and
at one point during his talk he says we are all evolved from Pon scum very clearly saying saying that with great
conviction and evidently uh some uh religious zeell it
said people don't need to be hearing this and complained to the park superintendent about it uh and he was
invited not to return now I believe they made another visit or two after 1980
when I first saw him I don't if it someone from San Francisco group might know how late they were there but uh
certainly by the late 80s into 1990 when I asked that it had been quite a few
years since uh the group had been there so anyhow we did it and uh we were told quite
specifically don't challenge anyone's potential religious beliefs about what we're saying and stuff so we were
actually indoctrinated uh not to do this about about you know Pon scum especially and
uh so we were quite careful and in fact I I sort of wanted to bias the
results uh you know when we we started a little Twilight talk of our own and I
you know we usually we get a 100 people easily sometimes sometimes 200 people
and I I'd say you know these guys are bringing their telescopes they're taking their vacation to share the sky with you
so you know thank them well if when you're sending a postcard to Aunt Martha
send one to the park superintendent say that you said you love this program so I was sort of like biasing you know
biasing the the the park in our favor and uh and it went went well uh we
didn't uh challenge anyone we had a great time the you know the the skies are spectacular people on vacation at
the Grand Canyon IND National Park are open for anything and and what else they
got to do at night at the Grand Canyon well nowadays they have cable TV at the hotel so they can stay at the room watch
TV but back in the 1990s uh our show was like the only one
we outdrew through the uh the ranger talks typically uh so anyhow this went
for a couple years then I ran into John at rtmc and I pulled him aside and said
you know John uh I first met you at the Grand Canyon 1980 and in 1991 we
restarted the Grand Canyon star party and you could oh his his eyes immediately narrowed because you know he
still had that that thought of of not being able to come there and he just went he just lit up uh
oh uh because one person complaining stopped it for 20,000 people every year
being able to see the stars he was just he was just livid even you know this was 15 years later uh just livid about it
and uh he said yeah one person complained and shut it down for everyone
and I said well we've restarted it and and you're certainly welcome to come join us and he did he came about the
fourth or fifth year and he came probably six or um maybe eight out at
the most uh a good half dozen times he came came out uh and one one night uh
you know I it's hard to get speakers for uh speaking to a 100 people and uh
usually I'd get four speakers that were regulars and they'd repeat after four days I'd have them on again and he said
well I I brought my slideshow I'll you know I'll I'll give my talk and and uh
there was the slideshow I'd seen 15 years before and of course there was the slide of Walden Pond and hey you know
you we're all evolved from ponc I said John no don't say that don't say
that but by that time you know no one complained and uh uh but I just about
tore tore what little hair out I had and you know the slideshows are a fun time anyhow because we had them right at the
door back door to y P Lodge were're 50 feet from the rim and usually there's
enough of a breeze there I had to have three Hefty guys holding the screen down
uh while we're projecting the slides and this was the old days where we actually had uh uh carousels of slides and uh it
was it was a great time uh sometimes froze our butts off sometimes not but anyway uh John loved it he revelled in
speaking to the people there uh he again windy nights he would have those purple
flyers and as he started talking he would like throw them up in the air there like a hundred of them and half of
went off into the canyon and uh I'm sure pissed off the Rangers but uh uh and a
couple years uh his second or third visit uh we had the bright idea to uh to
make a telescope during the week that we were at the canyon uh the current
version of The Grand can star party it's two Saturdays in the week in between so it's eight nights there and because I
work at the miror lab University of Arizona I scrunched up a an 10inch blank
and I think I got a piece of sonit tube and a sheet of plywood and uh I think uh
John's group had a couple of eyepieces and and took care of the other
parts and we met there and I rough grounded to uh I think F5 and I had a a
cast iron tool so we didn't need to you know it was kind of civilized uh so we
were polishing as a public public display and and tourists would come by and take a turn grinding uh and over the
course of the week we uh uh fine ground polished it uh I think i' had forgotten
the pitch and they had forgotten the pitch when they came from San Francisco so we had to run down there's the Optics
uh place used to be star instruments and Flagstaff uh and
and borrowed a kilo of pitch from them to to make a tool uh had polished it and I think there was
for some there's an outing that everyone went to except John John stayed behind and claimed to have figured the mirror
uh looking at the reflection of the sun off of a raven's eye so what could be I
mean that's a story right you do the final figuring using the the sun
reflection the sun glint off of Raven's eyeball wow and so he declared it done that same
optic shop star instruments uh down in in flag uh coated it for us uh and we
had it in the telescope and I think we used it uh I'm not sure it was ready Thursday but certainly Friday and
Saturday we had a a finished telescope that people were were could look through that we'd made and it was available for
checkout from the library at the grade school there for uh for kids to use at the Grand Canyon so uh I haven't kept up
with it I don't know what his current status is but uh that was a story at the
time anyway John was a a character he stayed at my on my couch a few times
coming through Tucson uh I remember I'm not much of one for breakfast and and I was heading off
to work one morning and I think he and his Handler were heading off to Texas I
think uh uh who would that have been I I forget the guy's name off hand Tim
what's that Tim no I think it was uh uh
geez I I'll think about in a minute uh he said you have any cackleberries I said what kind of fruit you
knowes have you got any eggs I said oh well again I'm not much of one for
breakfast I think I I use so few eggs I buy them by the half dozen to make uh
occasionally when I make when I need an egg and he talked to me later and those
eggs were so old they wouldn't even float but I I suspect he still I think
he still ate them anyhow but uh anyway uh what else oh another story uh I I I
don't know if someone told it yet tonight but uh he was using the Suns scope at the
canyon once and uh as you know they use a welders glass in the front to both
drop the light immediately uh to an uncoated mirror and then back to the
eyepiece so if that if that welder's glass were to break you would lose the
reflection to the eyepiece so you would never get a return of a unfiltered sun to your eye and someone asked Will I
burn my eye out and he said no the only way you will burn your eye is if you set
the telescope on fire and carefully hold your eye over the
Flames that always always I've heard him say that a couple times carefully hold
your eyeball over the Flames yeah that's right
yeah anyway uh what other stories I know that uh I don't know if surge coming on
tonight um I'm not sure it ended up being um very early in the morning for him I guess yeah Saray is an interesting
fellow he uh wrote to me back in the early 90s I was uh about the time the
star party started actually Grand Canyon I was president of the Tucson club uh
and he wrote to like 30 clubs through the Western us asking to bring some
children from his astronomy uh Club to the Western us W and and visit astronomy
sites and uh I responded and I think me and Donna might have been the only ones
that he got a hold of and uh I bill I think Bill talked to him first because
Bill referred him to me when they needed a part for their telescope and then
um anyway uh I didn't I didn't know the first trip you did that I wasn't
involved yeah the first trip was uh one kid and two chaperon and sgay so there
were four people one kid and then the next one there were I think 11 kid 11
teenagers and Sade by himself without chaperon and there was two three girls
in the group and he was like pulling his hair out trying to maintain order but that you know three trips uh he's he's
quite the character and somehow he connected either through you Donna but John visited them I don't know much
about the details about that but uh I will let you or someone else talk about that okay anyway yeah the Grand Canyon
still going strong we have upwards over 100 120 astronomers over
the course of the week uh bringing telescopes and typically uh geez I don't even remember
the numbers it uh we get uh hundreds of people come to the evening Twi Twilight
talks and uh uh I think they're talking 20,000 people over the course of the
week uh so and uh again people take vacation to bring their telescopes there
so uh think about joining us next year hopefully it's been virtual the last two
uh two summers but uh it's always a fun time and I'm glad John got me on that
track and uh public astronomy is you know growing up in rural Iowa uh small
High School my graduating class was 21 uh uh it's not like there was any
group activities for a nerd like me doing astronomy uh and I did it by myself for
the first uh five six years till I got into college and on to Tucson but uh you
know a joy that you share is something that is it's that much more valuable
so anyway thanks for letting me RA Ramble On well thank you for coming and
for joining us yeah and next I have Bill Scott who I think of as
like JD Jr because I think bill has the best understanding of his cosmology and
also a really good understanding of telescope making so Bill yeah it was uh interesting the uh
just before I joined the monastery uh John came through and gave a talk and uh I was absolutely
fascinated by it and fortunately the Swami that was sort of in charge of his
you know introducing him and so forth um said if anybody else was interested in
hearing more that he could give a series so he gave a series of talks and then he did it every year as
long as he was able uh so and at first he would come for maybe uh six or eight
weeks around Christmas time and he would do that because he was going to do the
Death Valley star party and he could more easily do it from from Hollywood and then it kind of gradually
got longer and longer and pretty soon he says you need to keep me busy why don't
you have a telescope making class so we started doing telescope making classes
and then of course as it happened many times people would not finish by the time he had to leave for his next uh
speaking tour wherever he was going and so people like Bob eloran and
Mike kindall and myself ended up being sort of the substitute teachers and since the classes took place at the Vata
Temple I was usually the one immediately available so I ended up doing quite a bit of telescope making teaching myself
uh over the years oh by the way you reminded me of a Funny Story told on
when he came back from visiting Texas once he says the population of Texas is
5050 people and cockroaches by weight he saids by weight he always had a clever
way of saying things so apparently he had run across quite a few cockroaches
when he visited Texas U but uh let's see what else do I want to say
about John uh really his explanation really helped me I had been before I
joined the monaster I had been a s and math teacher in high school so I was I had already taught people about the
periodic table and the the energy shells and the uncertainty principle and the
electron cloud and all these things but I didn't really understand it it was something that was uh you know not very
understandable frankly from the way that science puts it and then when he put it
together with Vidant he made both the science and Vata make more sense to me
so it was a real Boon and of course I got to hear his talk for probably close
to 25 years so I I got pretty good at it and it was a great pleasure to to hear
him yeah just his having been a teacher too I was just fascinated with his teaching style and how he was able to
engage his audience and uh get things across in ways that people could
understand so that was also another great privilege uh yeah he did uh of course
stay at the monastery for weeks at a time towards the end of course he stayed with us
permanently uh especially after his stroke and he really couldn't uh manage by himself uh but he really did eat salt
his eggs quite a bit so when he we used to tell him that too when he tell us
that it was four times salted scrambled eggs we say you use a lot of salt in your eggs John but he did he actually
did use quite a bit of salt in his eggs I used to cook breakfast for him he
had a special way of making soft boiled eggs that we had to use in order to to
make his breakfast so and he would eat the extra yolks we had one guy who would only eat the whites and so he would eat
the extra yolks he was a great fan of Adele Davis
nutrition and so forth and she had always promoted eggs and
said that the idea of extra cholesterol in the eggs was more than offset by the lesses than in the eggs and so he never
worried about those things uh I remember one of our big star
parties too that we had was when Mars had its closest approach and people you
know the news made a big deal about it even though you know there were many times when it was almost as close and
you could hardly tell in a telescope but um we were out to Griffith Park we
started at Sundown which was at about 8:30 that day and pretty soon you know I
kept moving the telescope up and over up and over up and over and pretty soon I was moving it over and down over and
down oh my God we've been here a long time and my legs were very sore going up
and down that ladder the next day um my dad had built a telescope when I was a
kid back in the 50s he was a big do-it-yourselfer he was actually a cartoonist but he loved science and was
always reading Popular Science and Popular Mechanics and so forth and he had gotten a hold of U plans for a
six-inch telescope but it wasn't a dobsonian mount those hadn't really uh become popular in the 50s but U he built
this thing on an equatorial Mount so we we looked at stuff when I was a kid and we lived up in the Hollywood Hills and
there were not nearly as many lights in the San Fernando Valley then and not
nearly as many in the Hills so we actually had a pretty decent view for a city location back then and could uh see
things relatively decently with a 6inch telescope but uh the telescope kind of
uh needed repairs and we kind of never got around to fixing it and so by the
time I got into high school and college I wasn't really uh using that telescope
anymore and so it been a long time since I'd really been uh a telescope user but
when John came of course that all changed and we ended up doing quite a
bit so uh can't think of anything else unless somebody has a question or a prompt that will make me remember
something we just had one of our monks just died yesterday and I was his power of attorney so my mind has been
elsewhere I was going to say you know Shiva I was wrong I thought he died on John's
birthday but he died the day before and imagine them together you
know I can just imagine them together now yeah yeah he was very fond of John
too well thank you so much Bill I'm glad you I don't see you very much anymore so
yeah I know we don't get to see anybody anymore I know I know so um Scott should
we take a break now I have a couple more speakers so I think maybe we take 10 minutes now and then we'll have Dennis
and Ken and then we can just have a kind of a discussion anything else anybody remembers okay that sounds real good all
right we'll see you guys in about 10 minutes okay
great
for
[Music] for
for
that
are you liking it are you liking your
dinner
should I hit the see so race 30 hm hit the AC soon race
30
supposed to give you the observational evidence for my model and I completely forgot I'm way too to do
this anyway now you way I have to put in the observational evidence
the Hubble telescope was asked to look at the L Alpha
for3 and ourselves 3c273 is a quazar and
it's close enough to us so that this ultraviolet light reaches Us in the ultraviolet and can't come to the
atmosphere so since the hover telescope is outside of the atmosphere they asked it please look at the 3c273 and see
clouds of hydrogen between us and there now if there clouds of hydrogen running away at different speeds then each Cloud
will put a dark line in the Spectrum you see and then you have a whole of dark that's called the L alha Forest so there
is the forest in there there and 12 of between 33 and our now
according to the Big Bang there are not any clouds of hydrogen between 3c273 and ourselves for two reasons first there's
no way to put any new hydrogen in there and secondly there is no way for
thousand of hydrogen to have hung around in there for 15 billion years without
condensing into something we could see that's an observational evidence that this really is something recycling
from the border now there's another evidence The Hub telescope was asked to look at the intergalactic void you
know the bigger the scale we went to the more lumpy the universe is now the Big
Bang would like to have it just with respect to with respect to Star and
still with respect to galaxies but it went all the wrong way for them the biggest scale that we looked at we have
the universe in the most ly state that we can out and so the Hub telescope was
asked to look at those Intergalactic voids and it says that there's more hydrogen in those Intergalactic void and
is needed to make all the known galaxies now the other evidence is that
the expansion rate is not going down the Big B models require that the expansion
rate should slow down because all of the energy is put in at the beginning even though they threw it in by half they
threw it in at the beginning and not all the way through and so gravity is pulling back on it and the expansion
rate has to slow down anyway that's the Dark Matter
problem we steady safe people don't have any problem with the dark matter can be ordinary matter I'll let me do something
on that too I have asked three astronomers in the course of 25 years or
so maybe 12 years or so what proportion of the stuff in a cloud
making inter cluster Stars What proportion of the stuff in the cloud
makes it into the star and What proportion gets Blown Away by their
skin now the first two this is a long time ago maybe 12 and 14
years ago or something neither of them had an immediate answer to that but they both
said about the same thing they thought that probably between one and 10% of the
stuff made it into this and between 90 and 99% of the St gets Blown Away by the
St wind now the last astronomer I asked was the T and he
said he he number right now number right now he says 95% gets
blown away and in some cases more and in some cases
[Music] better so we're all in the same wildar okay we're all the
[Music]
same well I hope you guys are really enjoying this special celebration of John
Dobson's birthday um he has he had many dimensions to him and uh um my my own
personal experience uh in spending anytime with him was at the uh movie
premiere for the movie Deep Impact we were at Paramount Studios uh John Dobson
was S standing alone on a u uh platform that was kind of overlooking the the
dance floor and uh so the uh various actors and people that were involved
with the movie were down below and uh I was up above as well with John and and
uh and and he gave me what I felt was a very grounded uh uh discussion about the
universe and um anyways I just really loved uh that moment with him and um
really felt uh you know I had heard you know some people told me yeah he had some crazy ideas about the universe and
stuff but I felt that he had some very sound ideas very grounded uh I was I was
wanting to hear some some of the more esoteric uh views that he might have but
uh uh he didn't come across that way to me so um anyways I I just felt it was uh
a great time the only other time that I met him was at Riverside telescope makers conference and he was showing me
the solar telescope that Peggy Walker was talking about so um I thought it was
such an incredible design and uh so anyways um you know I
want to thank Donna U uh you know Donna for um being with us again today and all
these speakers um many of them I'd heard about most of my adult life and and
amateur astronomy and it's great to see them here on this program so Donna I'm
going to turn it back over to you you know um what you said about you had heard about how he was kind of cooky as
far as his cosmology or whatever when we went to San Diego and he met Jeff
Burbage when he left the room that's the exact same thing Jeff Burbage said to me
he goes I thought he was a real nutcase I'd heard all this stuff you know and he's he's not
you know he goes he's he's not crazy like everybody sounds he might not be right we all might be wrong because he
was kind of an anti- bang guy too right but he goes but he's he's not crazy like
I thought so yeah yeah yeah I but I I actually wanted to hear that I I wanted
because it was it was something I had heard for years that oh yeah this guy's uh he's out there you know and I thought
Maria send him a [Laughter] book yeah he said uh somebody uh some
physicist he talked to said um well your views are uh I can't find anything
physically wrong with your views but they're heretical or something to that effect couldn't find any fault with
it tell you why but they're wrong okay so next we're gonna go to um
Dennis veev is that right did I finally say it right after like it's close
enough so so Denis was um like 17 when he translated John's telescope plans
into Russian and hosted the an organized the first all Ukrainian Ukrainian Astro
Forum which John attended and he's going to tell us about that and his other
trips with John yep thank you and uh yeah it's great to see so many familiar faces it's
been quite a while so uh and a great event uh thank you very much for putting
Al together and I'm going to just uh share my screen for a few slides I uh
realized that actually most of the pictures that I have from the earlier
times they are actually on film and I don't have them here I don't have all of
them scanned they uh most of them are still back at home in Ukraine uh so but
as Donna mentioned uh actually uh my story with John and with the sidewalk
astronomer started uh I think it was 1999 uh when I first discovered uh sideb
astronomers and uh I knew about dobsonian telescopes dionan Mound before
but it didn't click right away for me it took me a little bit of time maybe about
a few months of reading um we were just on our way to uh reestablish our
astronomy club uh in clar um and it's been my long time dream I was reading a
lot about stellane um I was craving to um you know
join a uh group of people who would share their uh hobby of astronomy their
interest passion to astronomy with me uh but we didn't have one and we were just about
to uh re re Revitalize so to speak our astronomy club locally
um so one of the key points that we were trying to do obviously to attract more
people is to go out to to do the Outreach and I started looking what
people are doing in terms of the Outreach uh abroad and obviously there
comes the Calk astronomers um and then since many of our uh members were
interested in telescope making and we were looking for something affordable uh
I found those plans for building a iol telescope by John and I said hey we we
should we should just go ahead and translate it into Russian and uh make it available for as many people as we can
um and to keep everything nice uh I emailed them to ask for official
permission of course to translate it uh and and that's how I met Donna because
she was taking care of uh all these uh you know things about like running the
everyday um things of sidewalk astronomers right so she responded to my
message and we started uh exchanging emails and uh we started working on um
the text uh for uh this book and uh
here's the doesn't want to switch but yeah uh so
that's how uh the Russian translation of uh this building as sidewalk uh
telescope looked like uh the picture is by my sister she's actually professional graphic designer
now so and uh um I translated the text and then
usly some people from our club who were more into telescope making I was a very
very beginner uh in that area uh they helped
me to read through and to correct many things that was not very uh accurate in
terms of terminology for example but that that's where they everything started and we kind of kept in touch uh
it was pretty successful and then as Donna mentioned um we came up with the idea of organizing something for
amateurs Across the Nation um because like I said we didn't have any um
Nationwide convention and I really was jealous about so many countries and
especially I was you know reading about the ne about cellophane about other star
parties Texas Star Party and other events in the and I was just why why
can't we have something like that here uh we should and obviously if we didn't
have anything to join we had to just uh you know start something on our own um
which we did and uh obviously trying to promote the first event the first to
Ukrainian Forum of Ure astronomers that uh we planned with a couple of my colleagues um for September 2002 uh we
had to have a featured guest which would attract the crowd right so we
immediately thought why hey why why why we uh want just uh invite John because he's
a really very well-known figure almost like an icon of telescope making and uh
public healthreach and astronomy so that would be really neat and uh most of my colleagues they were like n it's just
unrealistic let's face it they're across the ocean they're they probably don't even know who we are so they will never
agree um nevertheless I just asked Donna do you think by any chance it is it all
possible and yeah I'll give her all credit that that actually became
possible well actually he was going to the UK uhuh and that's when I said well
he's going to the UK and you're like great he can come here because we can we can deal with that if you get him across
the ocean you know so yeah worked out it was timing as well yep and it's kind of
big and that's probably where the whole trans Eurasian trip
actually came to be because they said the same thing they
said oh if he's in Ukraine he can come here so you know at least I stopped it at Siberia and he didn't go on
China well it was it was a long uh long road anyway yeah yeah so uh I have just
a few pictures that I happen to dig out and most of of them are from the
telescope making Workshop uh which was obviously the
central event we didn't have a lot of people uh that was just the very first
uh Forum that we basically had to convince people to come and to heavily
subsidize there we didn't have any registration fees we um had to encourage
people to come because they didn't know what the event is um so we had some speak ERS but of course just spending
time with John and uh this almost was it the day long it was almost the day long
because we made the mirror and we also build the mount that's day um the uh
telescope building workshop on the uh in in our University Observatory uh so that
was a highlight of the event certainly um and uh yeah here here's uh uh John uh
I think checking the curvature of the mirror uh while we will we were working on it and uh uh that's actually me
trying to grind uh and uh yeah here's Donna sitting and
observing everything and this girl she was in seventh grade I believe now she
has two kids and she's a professional astrophysicist and wow uh
you just never know where you know an influence like that is going to take you I know don't you know I know and it's
it's actually amazing some some people who I still uh in touch with for example
this guy here on the first picture he's a lecturer in our plarium he's also a
professional astronomer now and this other guy is a a meteorite finder this
one yes this uh I think we have a big better picture of him but he this is
actually Timor ketko from Moscow uh who discovered quite a number
of uh asteroids um the latest news that I've
heard he named an asteroid after K Reeves uh a couple weeks ago but he he
has a couple dozen asteroids under his build
um and uh yeah so we're going to keep
[Music] going um yeah so um that that's going to
be another whole story about the TV coverage and how many site trips we made
uh you know a part of the program of the Forum itself uh John was quite a
celebrity in our local and National TV so we made it to the morning show one of
the mornings remember Donna we were waking up quite early and uh went to a live Morning Show uh he gave a number of
interviews to the uh National TV stations um it was interesting when
after that we were going back to KF to our Capital to the international airport
for and he was flying to uh Britain or Italy um I can't remember where where he
was flying from uh Kev yeah he was going to Frankfurt yeah oh okay yeah so um and
we're going by bus to the airport because that was at that point it was just the most convenient way and uh the
guy in the bus just a few seats across from us he was like hey this is that
telescope maker from the TV and and he he started asking questions
across the aisle and we like essentially we just yeah continued our Outreach in
the bus on the way to to the airport so uh it was quite nice
uh and uh this guy here in the lab code he is the uh Optics uh uh guy in our
Observatory he is a pretty uh well-known telescope maker in Ukraine and there is
a bunch of funny stories about him because he's he was coordinating this Workshop from our side making sure that
we have all the supplies and stuff and when we were uh just getting
set to um start working on the blank um on the mirror just the rough
grinding we had to drive those three Nails right in the in the plywood uh to
affix the the the blank and Alexander he is actually the uh husband of the
director of our planetarium so he just turned away for a second to grab a
hammer and then John took the blank and started hammering those giant nails with
a blank you should have seen his
eyes when he started hammering those it was they were pretty pretty
sizable Nails uh to hold the blanket yeah it it was it was quite quite a uh situation
but we had quite some nice stories during that Workshop um but yeah um what else I
remember about that triple first off uh John was I believe he was 87 because
that was just shortly before it was midt so it was shortly before his
birthday and uh both him and Donna they were staying with me and my parents and
my sister I was in my uh sopore year in college at that point
um and we lived on the sixth floor and with with pretty high ceilings it was
quite quite a high building uh John when we uh picked them
up they came by train from Moscow and we picked them up in the railway station and went straight to our house and when
we were unloading we grabbed everything all the luggage um came to the elevator and we
were just we called the elevator we were just waiting John just flew the
stairs while everyone was waiting for the elevator and I have to admit that at
that point I probably would not be as fast as him running to the sixth floor
of my apartment house so yeah he was still doing that uh
for for those who who wonder what happened close to the
2000s uh but and and obviously those softboiled eggs breakfasts uh yeah my
parents and my grandmother uh who was still alive at that time they were tried their best to master the art of cooking
the perfect breakfast for John I don't know how much it worked but it did you know he he told me when we left that
sometimes people take such good care of him that it would make him cry and he was talking about your mother
yeah that's that's nice to hear I remember that uh in like
2012 2011 when I used to come uh I actually worked in the Bay Area um in UC
Santa Cruz in summers I was teaching for Johns Hopkins Center for talented Youth
and usually after I was done teaching uh we met with Donna some way or either I
flew down down or they came up uh but that that that's to come but I
remember that when we talked with John uh obviously he was older at that point
and sometimes he would just forget what we were talking about five minutes ago
but it was fascinating to me at that point when he still remembered fine
details of what happened when he was staying with us uh
more than 10 years ago by that time yeah uh to the point of like where something was located in my apartment
and or what my parents told him at some point and it was absolutely mind
blown you know you guys gave him a media right I think right uh yes that that was
actually yeah I I got it through like with the help of Tor so John this was John everywhere he
would people would give him gifts Okay so would give him like photographs
or maybe a little um souvenir of their city or something and and he would take it and
say you know I don't really have room in my luggage right so he would take these gifts and then just turn and hand them
to me right and when we were in Ukraine first of all you gave him a meteorite
and you gave him an eyepiece then you gave him that shirt
that that was a national Ukrainian embroidered shirt yeah they never got to my hand they went in his pocket or the
shirt he kept but the meteorite in the eyepiece and I'm like come on you make me carry all this junk give me something
good you know I have souvenirs not junk but I have souvenirs from everywhere you know I mean and and everybody's
photograph that they signed or or or kids pictures they had drawn you know and he I mean I have folders of that
stuff right and I'm like now you get you get something I'd really like and I don't get it
yeah and then it's just it was such a great experience uh that we kept in
touch uh with Donna and uh then uh it was a great booster actually I I will
not U exaggerate if I will say that it uh greatly shaped first of all my
perspective on the public Outreach it actually probably turned me into a big out reach person the way I am right now
and um it had a lot a great deal about my perspective on teaching as well and
uh people who know me you know I turned out I'm a researcher but I'm also
teaching uh all the way from middle school to radiate classes um and I
really credit that encounter and you know my uh just being
introduced used to the philosophy of sidewalk astronomy that that was a great lifechanging for me uh and then the
Forum took off um we had the growing growing audience
uh within five years we grew to uh 350 to 400 people uh and we actually didn't
do it in the city we uh moved out of the city we had uh telescopes a couple dozen
telescopes we had competitions we had speakers we had all sorts of things so it actually grew into a decent star
party and at that point at some point we thought why not um because that was
moved to uh spring to May why not having something else in full and we started a
second event uh and traditionally for the first second event the inaugural one
in 2006 uh which was in crania uh I said
Donna we we need need you guys because we you were our lucky very lucky first
featured guests uh on the first astrop for and we need you again we're run we're starting a different
event uh and they come again uh I think I can't remember but I think it was
combined with something else as well right because always crossing the ocean is never a small deal so oh yeah we went
back to Siberia okay yeah yeah and I mean you always try to combine it with something
else because you know um and we had a good bunch of people here actually Donna
and myself planning the event just shortly after they arrived um and we're
probably discussing something very Ser is uh judging by my face uh meantime
John was practicing his art of catching people who are late to his talks
uh and at that point point he was over 90 already uh but
still going strong um so and that was a relatively
remote location so we tried to have a little bit of observing as well but
obviously uh talks and we try to make this event as informal as possible to
just give people an opportunity to spend time with John and to really because he
became way better known way more famous in Ukraine because we started public
star parties the sidewalk events um we had them pretty much annually since 2002
all the way to 2013 in my hometown for example we had them twice a year and uh every event it
was just one night every a couple hours but we had up to 1,500 to 2,000 people
per night uh during those events uh a great bunch of volunteers with more than
10 telescopes we it it was just an absolutely great experience that grew
out obviously uh of my hometown we had U different clubs joining in so it was it
was uh really my Milestone uh uh getting to know the
sidewalk astronomers so here's uh the beginning of the one of the talks and as you can see John is still at it throwing
the Flyers um and this time actually we did have
some of his cosmology also introduced because I have to admit I had very
little knowledge about his cosmology uh he was mostly the popularizer and the
telescope builder for me um so um here's a few snapshots from the
talk um and some Curious conversations and some uh debates going on here and
I'm trying trying to keep up translating uh but uh it it was it was
great uh it was a great time and here's our uh
team with the astat here yeah people coming from uh
different planetaria different astronomy clubs uh we didn't have a whole bunch of people but they were here's T more again
uh but they were presented probably about 10 different cities here's the director of D planetarium Kon
planetarium Kia local people too so yeah we Kev uh that's the one of the editors
of our national astronomy magazine um so it was a good
time um and then um so I started working in the US but first I didn't move in I
started teaching in the summer camp I taught astronomy even though actually I am a chemist so it was another thing
because I knew John was a chemist so it was a great uh thing for me to find out
as well uh so we were kind of colleagues and sharing the same passion uh so while
working in the US in the Summers teaching at the summer camp um I also had an opportunity to travel and to uh
meet John on a couple of occasions that was the first uh no my second trip to
the and we actually went on a cross country uh road trip with u uh first my
friends from New York and then we had the handoff in Arizona where uh they
went back and they met with Donna and John and we uh spend some lovely time with David and Wendy uh and then we
headed over to uh Los Angeles and then later on we went up to San Francisco so
uh that night is basically spending some time with uh not one but two legends of
my uh Teenage times the first years of uh being an Ure astronomer so that that
was pretty great um and then I had an opportunity to visit the the D the D
Society at that point that's uh when they met Bill too so I still remember it
was a great uh night and uh yeah uh a lot of conversations and that's where
when I had a better perspective on you know John's Ste uh in the monastery and all the
filosophy uh beyond the C astronomers and Beyond his
cosmology and then we on top to San Francisco here is actually Ken who will be speaking after me uh
yeah and we had some time observing that was not not far from uh the marad I
believe it was uh left from all the most of the te somewhere uh and uh we had the
solar scope and then we had it on it was on and off cloudy and sunny and then cloudy
again so it was kind of a little bit uh unsettled as it often is the case in the
Bay Area but then we headed up on top I think it was Mount Tam and uh we had a
absolutely great time there great bunch of people a lot of conversations um so yeah but uh
remembering just the the latest visits and the latest encounters with John in
2012 2013 um like I said it was just
fascinating how much he remembered from the early times it was so great and
interesting to hear his perspectives about Early Times um and it was just uh you know the
whole experience was uh yeah I I won't be exaggerating if I will say that it
was a uh life-changing experience for me uh that in a great deal shaped uh my
career as a teacher and as a Public Health Reach activist so it was really a
great experience that's probably as much as they
have okay well thank thanks Dennis I knew I could count on you and now I'll
just let this go on to Mr Ken Frank and Ken um he worked with the um ASP sfaa
he's known John a long time so Ken take it
away Ken I think you're
muted can you hear me now yes I can can okay
so I have kind of a big upheaval in my
life right now where all of my
belongings and my wife's are outside of our house at this very moment and it's
crazy nuts wacko but it's great because we're downsizing and um we moved from tiberon
right at the beginning of the pandemic to here where we are now in San
raell and I gave away nine telescopes to the San Francisco sidewalk and San
Francisco amateur astronomers along with mounts and bunch of tons of stuff I
still have a few of I think John's items that I'm going to donate to
sfsa and Doug Smith if he's still active and I um just want to let you know that
I um what what do you call this the chat I
chatted with Maria hi hi Maria you look Peggy you guys look great all of you you
know you guys look great even you
Scott you know come on man I I just okay I'm just gonna be bouncing
all over the place so it's good to see you k i remember one and it's too bad Dean
kettleson is off now because he reminded me of that time that we built that scope
in eight hours and just like threw it together and it worked it was a great
scope anyway Scott maybe it wasn't that year another time at
rtmc of all Dennis hi Peggy hi
hi you guys everybody you look great I'm not saying that like you know
just to be flattering everyone is so youthful
Andy hello Andy I was I was muted sorry about that I don't know if I I don't know if
I've ever met you Andy I don't think I have as well no are are you in the
Southland or where where the heck are you uh Connecticut well I guess you're not it's
on the other side of the world basically which
World how's your weather back there um we get the we get the remnants of the
Hurricanes some heavy rains at times but uh but everything's pretty good you know September's are are great uh time of
year you know warm days and cool nights are you getting any of her smoke yes some yes yes you know so that
picture behind you that you have is your background of John it's a little
Eerie he's like over your shoulder well yeah sorry no well that's okay is is
that from um from stellane on his Stane yeah because I see the guy with the
T-shirt behind him and you know who I missed that didn't sign in and I told
about was uh Allen Stern Al stern oh he
was gonna Allen Stern from the uh you know the New Horizons Horizon thing but
Al Stern who showed me at yede um I
think the Milky Way anyway so like I said I'm going to bounce all over the place first of all I'm going to go back
to Scott hello Scott how are you
doing I I remember I I just remember your beaming face the first time I met
you and I was going this guy's a special guy you know yeah yeah and uh no it was
really just um when I meet people you know I can tell if they're happy people
and you are defitely a happy guy so that's one of the things that that
that's one that particular time was when I brought John out of many times to
rtmc from his place on Judah and
um uh in the amphitheater you guys remember Irene Irene or Maria I'm sure
you remember this we would you know very patiently
fold John's you know missive you know the five or three page thing right all
that and then he take them out of the plastic bag from Safeway or tjs or
whever and then he'd throw them in the audience you remember
that and it' gravel for you know everyone like you
know I mean that was one kind of thing of J um I'm sure um Donna you you
experienced that as well right oh yeah sure all of us have I think you know
that's one thing John was really good at is just like at the beginning of a cosmology series you know he would ask a
couple of questions and he would have a couple of cute things to say and every audience even people who had been there
many times before was like they heard it the first time and throwing the Flyers was like that he got the same reaction
even if he been there every single year and everybody knows he's gonna do it yeah you know yeah the Watchers of the
sky you know same in Connecticut when we had the Connecticut star party uh people got so
excited when he would throw those pamplets around that there was a guy that was a printer and he made the boxes
of them for him so he could always have them wherever he went there's always a trail a trail of
yeah lers of the sky yeah so I'm going to go back to Scott now and one year we
were at rtmc and it was just when you started up your Explorer
scientific oh okay and you had a 2in you know big
honken teleview similar I PE yes
and and I have a video of it somewhere that's the whole thing that I haven't
been able to do because I wanted to put together a really good PowerPoint point of over the years from when I met John
when my son Aiden was involved with it and um a bunch of tons of other people I
mean I I'm not I can't even mention all of but a lot of folk help me promote
John in a lot of different ways but Scott you remember I'm sure you do and
I'm sure many many people have commented on it okay guys so
he he has his eyepiece like this right yeah and he he goes you know at
rtmc at this uh at the camp in Big
Bear there you it's kind of Sandy Loom soil
but a lot of ous Rock in it yeah um
Donna where are you going
anyway I'll be right back I have to go to the little girl's room no it's no
it's what so he picked up the soil and he drops it right on the
lens oh yeah did you take some water or something and you poured it on it
too what a stunt but I thought that was like that was so much fun I led that
that year was kind of like out there and it was kind of the winding down of as we
know our TMC which is no more Richard oer who was who's EA I mean man he's my
treasurer for the a andc by the way I don't know I should be telling you
guys this but we dissolved the a ANC because we were just giving away plaques
and it was kind of like I was rather of the mind to just donate
money to clubs that furthered astronomy to the public and sidewalk astronomy
especially so anyway um Richard was on the board of
the and I think he basically ended up running rtmc and then that folded year
before last the beginning of the pandemic oh yeah yeah yeah all right because I
remember um Scott didn't it went into uh and we have uh booth and stuff in
Pasadena for one for one year or something and it yeah there was the
Pasadena astronomy yeah event that was similar to
very similar to the Northeast astronomy Forum it was called Pats PS yeah p
yep it was called Pats and that was run by uh Alan Guth Miller and a few of the
guys that were part of the rtmc crew uh it was just very very expensive
to have it in Pasadena and they were renting out the um Pasa Convention
Center pretty fancy schmancy I remember I stayed on I mean Colorado and it was
like wow this expensive I said this is not you know amateur telescope making
and in the John dubs and stuff anyway I digress um let's see I'm just gonna
recall a couple of things one is I remember taking John we went to Mount
Tam a bunch of times and and then Dennis of course you remember when we were in
front of the dolphin club and sidewalk astronomy there what I wanted to do
Dennis was was kind of recreate what John did 20 years before he went to
giradelli square um North Beach we were in um hay
Ashbury of course his kind of favorite hangout spot was ninth and
Irving now Andy this may you know not mean anything to you
but it's parallel to golden The Gate Park yeah I was there yeah where John
used to teach telescope making at the Academy of Sciences one story to relate and that
was I don't know what year it was many years ago he was teaching astronomy
through the Academy of Sciences at that building in Golden Gate Park and Alex
filipenko the rising star of UC Burke berley was on the board he said John
doson teachers there I'm out of there so
it was kind of like John had to had to leave because they weren't going to give him funding and all that crap because
his cosmology stuff right right you know Ian we all know what that's all about
they they were only gonna let him teach telescope making and he said no yeah by
yeah so then he moved to the Randall Museum where I picked him up through and
I can't remember if I met John first or Mo Jane as in Morris Jones and Jane
Houston Jones and when they moved to Southern
California I assumed the position of uh later president of the a ANC
astronomical Association of Northern California which is kind of the umbrella Club of clubs of all of Northern
California and we were kind of eeking down into Central California as far
south as St Louis abiso when I was working for NASA uh at
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for the night sky Network anyway it's not about me that's all
about John and it's all about us um how we have been affected by
John and [Music] um I just like to reflect on
that you know this is it's so powerful
because this is a guy who gave his whole life for this he did didn't do it for
money how how many of us did things for money okay certainly yeah right yeah you
know this is a guy that didn't have a home in the
traditional sense okay and this is a guy who knew with
full conviction his connection to the universe and he was there to try
to um explain his his view you know he had this
succinct Right View and and uh so through the the his his simple life his
you know that there's very very few people who have given up everything really everything to do this
you know I think he saw it that way you know he do it this way yeah but he had such a
mission you know what I mean that oh it was never enough you know he had more
and more plans you know like he wanted to have this bus outfitted so he could
go around and and then he was saying he needed a sidewalk astronomer ship or something you know so he could just go
everywhere and you know yeah yeah I think I could say that uh every one of
us has been in tears one time or another during this uh uh this time and and
that's because uh John's influence us was that powerful you know was that
meant that much and he and not just us but many many more people yeah we were
just lucky because we like for us we were in a close proximity to him or or
you know were around him enough that you form that connection but there are people that that wrote letters all the
time time that they met him once or twice and you know and John was a guy
you might meet him in the airport and take him home I mean if you were really interested he would you know like I
gotta go they need you know she needs me or he needs me to be there they gota understand how long how long did gu take
John you know gu was um before me Okay g
g couldn't make it tonight he has some connection problems oh too bad John was adamant that every July he goes to G
and it was before me and then G is the only place he went after his stroke that
was not astronomy related it was just right he needed he needed to get out of a Dante a little bit and and go to G and
and you know after his stroke he was not so able like changing his clothes and
stuff like that right and they were like we're having some problems with John you know right doing the normal stuff right
so we would ship him off to gu because he would get there and his wife would be like no no no honey you're taking a
shower before you come in this house and then gu was like yeah you got to do this you're gonna you know we're gonna go on
walks we're gonna do and it and it put him back in the normal kind of a thing because at Vidant honestly there were
just too many people they and and they're not they're not trained caregivers you know what I mean and even
if you're not a trained caregiver if there's one person in your house you can take care of them but with all of them
there it was just hard because he could get by with certain people and then say I'm gonna have oh no recall you can't do
that I'm gonna have Bill do it you know and he could manipulate that situation a little bit to get his way and at Gar
House his wife would let him get by with that you know so so I have to relate um uh you
know Donna kept just saying G this G that just going God I got to go up and meet that guy and then uh I can't
remember what year it was but the eclipse yeah we went up and we we we
stayed with and near and ate and hung out with gu and his wife and his son and
Carl zambuto came down from um Washington and with his girlfriend and
we hung out together and it was so cool G lives in this little little
tiny well it's not tiny it's a small community and uh in an Apple
Grove in the middle of this town and where
Carl gu and I did sidewalk astronomy was in this little town called Independence
and we were in front of a Ralph's store in a parking lot which was
so very John you know and it was so cool the three of us just
connected and uh we ate together and we had fun together and it was like man
John is here he's with us it was so much
fun it was really really great so I can understand why John went up to
G uh okay let's see another story
Peggy how the heck are you doing great doing great I didn't have that kind of
relationship with John but I from what I get just from all the stories you guys share is like how can you not
be I don't say sucked in because that sounds like a bad thing he was not really like oh I got to
go eat I gotta I mean he seemed like he wasn't even worried the things that you and I kind of every day okay got to go
pay my bill got to go get gas that wasn't even a thing and to live a life where you were not in bondage to a car
or to a home it gave him a lot of freedom to really be who he wanted to be
and not and he I just never remember him and like I said we didn't have a lot of conversations together but he didn't
strike me somebody who was worried about where his meals are going to come from where he was going to sleep
and to me there's a certain amount of empower m in that you know what I mean to live your life at the fullest and you
throw abandon out there and you just know the cosmos is going to take care me
so there is I just admire that I just admire the crap out of that he he really
didn't have that that connection to a lot of things that we do there was a time when I was like okay so I have the
schedule it means you're not going to get you're going to leave San Francisco in December and you're not going to get back there till like the beginning of
November is that okay and he's like well yeah but I have a big problem I only have three slips I only
have two slips for my car insurance with me and I'm like yeah okay and he goes I
need to go back to San Francisco to get my payment book and I'm like put your account number on the
check okay whatever then he calls me a couple days later what am I gonna do about my car insurance you know I only
have two slips and I'm like may have Bill make a photoc copy I don't know right and then he finally calls me back
and goes well Bill Scott's going to take care of it he told me he could just make a copy or whatever and I'm like I'm my
God you can figure out the origin of the universe and you can't figure out how to pay an extra month's car insurance I
mean you know you know or one time we were we were in Russia and he said do
you notice how many of these women are redheaded it's really unusual see very many redheaded men and and mine was red
and I'm looking at him and go really can't figure that one out and he's like
you mean they diet they diet Where Have You Been know
I'm gonna relate to you another like a little commonality I just
remember uh you know I kind of got in a real routine with John when he moved to
Judah Street and that you know all all the people that he was involved with and
the and the mirrors that he buried in the backyard there it was it was just
too much fun and I and okay okay one thing I can remember
because he would talk about when he was a little boy and he had like a flexy
flyer type of thing and at that time in the sunset District of San
Francisco it was all sand dunes yeah and right at 36th Avenue which is called
Sunset I don't remember anyway and and he lived uh he showed me
where he lived with his family and his parents and all that stuff and he made a
sale out of something I can't remember and that's how he got home he made a
sale and he had like a bamboo pole and stuff and I just remember doing that kind of stuff as a kid on the Great
Highway it was the same kind of thing and I just going oh yeah that's that's cool it's fun and another thing I'd go
and I'd pick them I don't know where we'd be going we'd be doing stuff I'd take them to like Trader Joe's because
he always wanted to have raisin brand and some other stuff almonds or whatever
and he would kind of like a squirrel stash his
almonds in a used like uh open
container of Orange know when you have yeah orange
juice he probably would carry that around with it right now now that you mentioned it he
actually continued doing that when he was in Ukraine too orange juice brand
brand flakes uh nuts yeast and then then he'd be at home
you know I don't know what I you know I'd just kind of hang around and just kind of be with him
and you know he' he'd play on his organ and stuff like that and then he'd in a
frying pan he would cook up a couple of eggs and eat that and I don't then we
take off and go right you know like like everybody else
but it was just little you know we were at um I was at
his house and and Loretta had made a comment she was a little upset that he wasn't home right when we had those
cosmology classes upstairs oh Bo yeah well she was kind of upset that he wasn't there very much and and then she
said you know he has needs to clean out his apartment so I went up there and he
had an orange juice can on the kitchen sink that had something in it right and
had an orange juice can on the table that had like a pen in it you know what
I mean and and whatever it was it was useless and
I threw away a couple of those damn orange juice cans and he had a fit right
and he was just like I need that and I'm like for one pen you don't you know you
don't he was very upset but you know I mean I would want somebody to come in my house and do that and I forced him to
throw away a lot of stuff you know and I I just then when Loretta got there and then they were like oh you didn't have
to do that and I'm like oh my God this is how I wanted to spend my week and I I
tortured this poor man you know because he had these old um secondaries and he
had these old some military some military thing that had a mirror on it that he was going to use for secondaries
and he had drawers of binocular eyepieces and I'm like and well that that's how of pitch and
stuff you know that's how he made uh The Ugly Duckling yeah I mean there were so
many of them and I was like condensing them and then I'm like going you're never going to use these you don't you
can't you're too old you can't make enough telescopes in your lifetime you know and then we got in the car and I'm
like I'm sorry you know this was not my idea talk to me you know when we talking
about his diet he he sitting in a diner once I'm I've got pancakes so I start putting a little syrup on it on it he
goes you he puts his head are you really going to put that on there and and so I
said yeah I'm just G to put so he takes two creamers and he opens them up and he
drinks the creamers like this as I'm putting syrup on my pancakes
this is oh yeah he was crazy about syrup I remember that yeah I remember one
thing din something oh man when you mentioned food I remembered one one
thing when we were I think we were um on the way back to the airport uh and at a
random bus stop and I I remember we went to get
something to drink with Don I believe and then we're coming back and John is
wandering around uh by the edge of the parking lot and he's basically picking
some random flowers and he started eating them in my driveway my
driveway the weed and everyone around was well we were kind of sort of used to it that point everyone around was so
freaking out I have I have the best story we are in Moscow and we're at the
Sternberg University and the president is giving us a tour to their Observatory
and his English is not great and John starts eating weeds and the man is like
no no no stop you you know you cannot do that or what no no no and John's like no I know what I'm doing and the guy comes
to me and he's like make him stop and I'm like oh you know whatever and then joh eat some more and then he's like no
no no please stop five minutes later John picks something else and the man is like please it's dangerous and all this
and John just is you know I know what I'm doing and the guy comes over and he's like please please he could make
himself sick and I'm like he's really old he hasn't killed himself yet you
know and the bottom line is he's not gonna stop so stop worrying about it you're not gonna do any good you know he
actually did know what he was doing I forget if it was his dad but uh he knew
the plants someone who who was a scientist a botanist taught him which plants were were safe I just keep
thinking about this poor guy here you have this guest in your country who's renowned he's really old and all you can
think of is he's gonna make himself really sick under your care right and
the guy was frantic and I'm like that's I think what happened was in the the the
biography it talked about how the mom took them out of public schoool
and she would go to the park and she would teach him at the park so I'm sure she was the one that probably introduced
him to herbology and botney and that's probably where he learned it from was from her could be yeah there's an
Ary his father was a zoologist yeah yeah his dad was a zoologist yeah his mother
music teacher right yeah yes yes okay so let me see if I can if I'm
am I am I waning on my time now uh after you we just have Sergey and
zanji where's where's Sergey he's in
Russia okay um let's see I'm just trying to tie us all in
here uh I'm I'm ready I'm ready to to to
speak uh in just a moment oh
Oh that's oh Serge Serge yeah oh my gosh geez how old are Serge how old are you
know uh I'm 66 I mean Dennis how how old with when
you guys came like he was teenager right yes well you mean you were teenager I
remember no Dennis wasn't a teenager the first time no the first time I came I believe I was like 25 is that when we
went up to lick yeah that that should been I was 25
probably yeah young 25 anyway let's see but if there's
anything else I can really relay that kind of tie this all together
uh well I mean we just had so many time when I took him to yede and we went to
Glacier Point and I mean it just it was not obviously the same when he went there with his
yellow uh van and all that and I just remember all the we went through
getting the uh remember Donna the sign yeah the placard thing the placard from
the national park and all that crap um that's a whole other you know but I'm
just trying to think of the the really really good stuff I just I have to let
you all you guys know something that I feel really really bad about but there
wasn't much I could do when John was on his downhill
slope um my mom was there my mom's
little older than John and she said to me Ken you're spending more time with
John then you are with me and at that point I talked to Donna
and I that's when we had to decide on okay what's you know what are we going to do
and what was fabulous is Donna just you
know took it upon herself and we moved them down to the vidanta
center and I just feel really bad about that but don't it was wonderful they
were wonderful to him you know and what I remember is when we had that uh party
or whatever you want to call it at the vidanta center and I'm sorry that I
didn't get to talk to the Swami but that we uh that was so neat looking through
the solar scope um um just in closing have you talked to
Lauren or Ruth um I sent a messages I didn't hear back from so okay um Lauren
just gradu I mean about a year and a half ago or something Lauren got a new job and and I'm sure he's one other
thing that I want to relay to all you guys is we had a memorial for John at
um lend in San Francisco one of the places plac that we used to always go to
and it was so much fun and we had tons of telescopes and we had a huge turnout
of people that I never thought would show and I was really trying to get as
many joh you know Don and I were really trying to get people to come there and
Jeff Roloff right wasn't Jeffrey there I think yeah and uh hey have you talked to
Brucey have you talked to Bruce I have not but you know I I'm really pissed that I didn't do it
and talk to King Sams well we're going to do this again next year so that's okay oh good you know the most amazing
thing about the the memorial in San Francisco was you all know the story of John getting kicked out of the monastery
um for picking weeds or whatever the woman that he was picking weeds with her daughter was there who had the original
10inch telescope that John built you know and everybody wanted to buy it
because she said she doesn't really use it but she wouldn't give it up but I mean there were I got emails afterwards
how how they could make her sell that telescope because it was you know such
historical importance and I'm like it's the woman's telescope there's no law that's gonna make her sell it
yeah you you you guys have no idea how many telescopes came across my path and
that I turned back out to the street again yeah a lot of sidewalk astronomers people would I don't know through Donna
through somebody through list serves I don't know but uh there were a lot of
different people all over the San Francisco Bay area and you know somebody
had died and they say you know we got this telescope it's a 10in it's like what do I do with it yeah give it to me
so I'd fix it up and then out in the street again so I I do not know I mean I
didn't keep like track of where Scopes went although I do
know you guys if you ever want to get in touch with the first telescope that was
made by Bruce it's in the Santa Cruz mountains it's a 6 inch and it has a um
17 19 or 177 1976 uh like wallpaper on it and it's a
really cool scope and um you know anybody who wants to play with it or
hang out with it or do something I can get it for you I
have I don't know numerous solar Scopes that are all over the place too people
like what do I do with this yeah so anyway to wrap it up what do I have to
say huge impression on my life and my families whether they liked
it or not yeah and uh so I miss
him I think that sums it up we all missing yeah yes we
do okay I'm gonna sign off you guys okay well thank you Ken thank you it's good
see sorry I didn't have a whole bunch of pictures and stuff but I mean need them everybody had pictures but I think you
know yeah yeah it was good Ken we're all right there with you it was good
absolutely bye bye bye see you in the
dark all right there we go okay and out even though that's not correct and um I
don't do gravel
yes and you don't do eclipses because they're too short okay sgate you're
on uh thank you um I want that you hear me because I'm
speaking from the opposite side of the earth yes almost from from Mars
almost so first of all I I have to to excuse me for limitations of my
English because I speak English once in five years so sounds good it's no
problem it's it's the problem for me it's better it's better than our Russian
okay okay well no we have Dennis that's true um um John Dobson first visited
Russia in 2002 um this visit was was initiated by
me and Donna smid but all began in 1998 when uh we first came to United
States with small group of amateur astronomers it it
was incredible trip with great great impressions and it was a trigger of our
uh next steps in Communications with between Uh Russian
and American uh amateur astronomers um the first in Russia which
Donna John and Donna visited was there a city near the lake Bal H John was
invited to the Institute of solar and terrestrial physics to give a talk in seminar in science seminar and also he
met uh local astronomy fans a few day L days later we met him in our city in in
KARK I remember it was two uh 2:00 2 a.m. at Deep night uh shot man came out
of a trained carriage and says hi I'm
John well such a simple style of presentation of a great and famous
person was amazing for me uh we met uh and to guest to the hotel to let them
have a rest because the next day was with very busy schedule in which we held
a press conference with the participation of the most popular media
Outlets uh and after the press conference John gave a talk and gave his
popular lectures on astronomy in which he outlined his vision of the universe
Evolution uh uh there were hundreds teachers and school
children amateurs of as strong omy from Kar and neighboring towns everyone listened to his lectures
with interest everyone impressed later we introduced John in
the institution uh that conduct educational activities on astronomy in
our city uh a few day Days Later John left kras and arrived in tomsk there
this town located in a little to the west of Kaya 6 600 m miles away and they
just like in our city there is an astronomy club for children and teenagers this club also works for a
long very long time um the quaintance
with member of the club uh was in the plan of visit and it was the meeting
with a large group of children and adult graduates a lni of this club as always
John gave his wonderful lecture uh from Tom the guests left for Moscow where they were
met by professional astronomers headed by Anatoli chip
pasuk uh he's the director of the stanberg state astronomical Institute
this is a very famous scientist with a worldwide reputation who showed around and spoke about the Institute activity
anatol CH pasuk personally took John and Donna to the pioner
p in Moscow the Piner Palace is the center of supplementary education for Children Here an astronomical
Educational Center for um children's
operate the they met here children and astronomy teacher from the Palace of pal
Pioneer Palace the guest visited all the most interesting places in Moscow and
got qued with the capital of Russia then they moved to the city
of harkov Ukraine they were they were invited by local astronomy Society
Dennis was the organizer of this great visit to Ukraine uh in
2006 uh several years later impressed by his first visit to Russia John Dobson
asked Dana to organize new visit to Russia uh this time we decided to expand
the the program of the visit to include not onlyus nas and Toms but also no no
is a large city with population 1.5 million people it is capital of Siberia
we say uh the here the factory that uh produces telescope for amateur
astronomy uh he is is located in addition here there is a small company
that also produces amateur astronomy amateur telescopes and the the sold them
over all the world including large aperture DS sonian uh one of the famous astronomical
Club in Russia existed in no for long time ago but it
was close to the to the moment of visit of John Leon saruk was its founder the
author of books on amateur strong on mature telescope making he personally
built a number of interesting telescope models I would say is he he he is our
our John Dobson um uh it was very interesting for
him to meet John when when I introduced him to John I said this is our Russian
John doson John smiled it was a very funny
situation ation uh again after no the guest moved
to Moscow where we had a second meeting with astronomical community and then
John and Don repeated their visit to Ukraine uh almost 20 years have passed
the question arises what are the implications consequences of the visits
by John for amateur astronomy in Russia they have had an extremely strong and useful effect the
fact is that after this visit the sidewalk astronomy movement began to develop at an unprecedented phrase in
many Russian cities including those which John Dobson did not visit New
astronomical associations of sidewalk astronomers have merged among amateur of astronomy and these associations were
engaged in popularization of astronomy uh like John and his follow
followers they they invited everyone to uh to look through their own telescopes
CH such events and announced are announced in advance and places of
holding in cities with minimum life pollution people came and
wondered uh John Dobson's visit dramatically changed a metor astronomy
in Russia under the impression of these visits which were covered by uh Federal
Russian media including um the the most the famous TV
channel Association of sidewalk astronomy emerged in many cities which
to this day are actively involved in the popularization of astronomy and
regularly each first quarter moon conduct astronomical observations with
their telescope according to idea that was invented by John of course this
creates bright impression for people involved children in this activity who became become interested in Cosmos in
science and undoubtedly this is beneficial for any human society today I
would like to thank John Dobson for for the fact that uh his idea changeed the
world for the better John was truly a citizen of the
planet Earth he was respected all over the world in many countries he visited and
even those which were not uh everyone knew uh about his ideas his followers
continue his activity continue to amaze people with the world of Cosmos and make
people think about the place of f person in this life about the need to protect
the planet as a unique space object in which people feel comfortable and which need to be protected and preserved
preserved for future generation that's all I would say today thank you
for your attention oh thank you so much I'm so glad you could make
it I think he's gone okay so no no
I'm I'm here I'm here well I'm glad you came because I I I really wanted your
perspective my my perspective yeah I really thought we needed to hear from you and I'm glad you
could join us we have threee visit to to uh to United States uh uh in
19998 2012 and 2017 uh and I would like to continue
continue this these arrangements and yeah
but uh if you if you agree we start thinking about the the world is
conspiring against us right now with the pandemic and everything
else you know but um yes I'm ready and now you can now you can stop in Omaha
because Dennis is here ah I how many times many times ask Ado why when we're
United States Denis doesn't join us we know we need he never he never uh
joined us when we were in the United States no he's always some else active I'm astronomers what what we
never saw him in Los Angeles inan in San
Francisco I see him for the first time his English is absolutely perfect I
such English such level of English but excuse me next time we'll make sure we
get him here okay okay so Zan are you
ready can you hear me yes I can hear you I guess I'm ready that's a tough act to
follow so so zandu is a friend of mine that um because if you're a friend of
mine you probably know John okay and you've probably driven John and you've probably done sidewalk events so that's
how he met John and then when he moved back to Pennsylvania he hosted John and
he was um not a real active amateur astronomer somebody who was interested in John kind of widened that and he's
gonna tell us yeah so um yeah everything that Donna
said's pretty pretty accurate so I had an interest on my own in amateur
astronomy prior to meeting Donna and then um I moved out kind of randomly to
Los Angeles about 15 years ago and I had
it was silly I had no plan nothing and I I uh went for a walk and I saw this
flower shop and I just decided to go in and ask for a job and I met Donna at
that time and and uh just a total stranger and she said sure sure you
could start working the day after tomorrow and um she was wearing a t-shirt that had some kind of astronomy
picture on the front of it and I said oh so we started talking about that and we ended up talking for a couple hours uh
after close about that you know on our first meeting um and I think she probably
asked me at that point do you know who John doson is and uh I didn't at the
time or or I wasn't aware of of knowing who he was um even if I
you know maybe did in some way um and so that's you know so I'm
just going to share a couple kind of funny stories just different things Recollections I don't know my my stories
sound pretty similar to a lot of the stories that people have been telling um just some Recollections about uh things
he did and said and um kind of food related
stories um but yeah so when I lived out in Los Angeles I would Donna would
sometimes ask me to drive John between different locations I'd go pick him up
at bant and um you know take him in the same van
that that I was doing flower deliveries for for Donna's shop and um and then later on I don't
know maybe I I want to say maybe about five years later so I'd say 10 years ago
he came out to Pennsylvania and I believe he was
probably leaving Andy's house is that right he was going to the Cherry Hill star party or something I think he's
going to Cherry Springs which is yeah the darkest location and I know and I as I recall he was
leaving Connecticut so I think he was probably coming from Andy's house yeah um but yes I I I could tell you a
little bit about that visit so I I went to I'm in Reading in Pennsylvania so I went down to pick him up at the bus
station and uh he was going to spend I don't know maybe two days with
us something like that just kind of like a he was pretty old at that point so I was just to kind of give him a rest give
him a break between Star parties and um I driven around so much in Los Angeles I went to
pick him up I said hey John he goes hey I said you remember me and I was really looking forward to him saying yes he
said no he didn't remember me um but uh we
and then we got in the car and uh I figured we could stop off at the
supermarket and you know get some foods that he enjoyed eating and um I said you know
kind of thinking like maybe a lunch and a dinner or a couple lunches and a dinner something that he would enjoy
eating and I said you know what can we pick up for you at the supermarket and
uh anybody want to guess what he said or
ju he it was very specific he said hog andaz oh h hog andaz and uh yeah and I
said okay we could do that and uh and what else would you like um and he just
wanted hog and do so so you know he did end up eating more things than hog andaz but that's the only thing that he was
helping me out with for suggestion um and then salt he he brought salt he was putting a remarkable
amount of salt on his food and I didn't realize how IND salt he was at that point and I I kind of
made a joke I said oh you should carry your own canister of salt uh and he said I do and he he pulled it out of his
pocket uh and he had a 35 millimeter film canister filled with salt oh my god
oh and he I yeah I think he dumped about maybe a quarter of the container on his
meal um and uh I've eaten weeds with him I've
walked around San Francisco with him uh taken a walk around the neighborhood
while I think I think I think that might have been the occasion where Donna was telling the story about cleaning up John
and I were going for walk and he was pulling weeds out of the sidewalk and telling me to eat them um so that was
fun and I don't know what else can I tell about uh I think that's about all I have for
different kind of interesting food stories oh we had um maybe some of you've had this
too in the 70s you could get the those Time Life books and and every book was
uh one was called the forest and one was called uh the mammals and one was called
the universe you remember those books yep got like a half inch wide
spine and just out of curiosity while he was there in the house I pulled the the one called the universe off the shelf
and flipped through it and there he was in this book um that we'd had you know
my whole life so I thought that was kind of that was kind of funny I bet bet John
liked that you know I don't really remember him having a really strong uh reaction
to it he was on this particular visit um it was I wouldn't call it an
unpleasant visit I did enjoy having him but he was he was more in his kind of
grumpy mood for for some of the visit I would say and um and the one like for
example he brought you know the the the film um a sidewalk astronomer I don't know if maybe some of the producers of
that are on tonight no they weren't hear of it oh okay well he brought that he brought
that with him and he we were watching it and um there was some he was talking
about the moon in the in the movie and my mother was there and she and she she
had some question about the moon and he turned around and he said he said this
isn't about the moon this is about me he wanted he wanted to talk about himself
um so that was kind of that was funny but uh yeah the one thing I remember him
really enjoying on the visit was that we we had an old cat named baby orange at the time um who kind of reminded me of
John in a way he was he was a very old cat and a little grumpy sometimes and
John really kind of bonded with him so that was cute he was always trying to
pet the cat and make friends with them
um yeah what else can I tell you about that that
visit that's I mean I know he had a good time oh did he say he did that's good
yeah that's good yeah I wouldn't say that he I didn't have the impression that he had a bad time um but he was
just you know he was seun um and we had that road trip up to San Francisco together Donna and me and
Carla and John that was fun that was another nice memory yeah you so a lot of my memories have to do with kind of John
being in transit you know him visiting here because he was between places or me driving him around in the in the flower
van or the road trip to to um up to San Francisco and I do remember he was kind
of a uh doing some backseat driving for much of that trip
he never rolled a van I know oh yeah yeah every single time he told me that
every time we went anywhere one time I'm like no unlike you I never
have so and there was there was there was something on that trip about um we
stopped off at somebody was talking about fruit how he we were eating cherries he was he was yeah it was a
cherry stand in the middle of nowhere and there was a portapotty or something yeah something about that what happened at that I don't remember but with John
in a pter potty who knows who
knows well what time is it now uh over here it's a quarter past one
we've been on for we've been on for five hours I think we've kind of like done a John Dobson good this year don't
you I'd say so yeah it was fantastic I
think I think that we have um uh you know
certainly um you know got to know John better I
know that I have you know for sure um you know because I like many people I
only met him once or you know briefly you know where you know to be able to
sit down and actually really talk to the guy you know um uh was uh was great and
um I can't say that I was you know a close friend of his or whatever I
respected the man um and uh still do you know
because uh you know people whether they're luminaries like
John Dobson or they are uh you know your average person you know they still have
this ongoing effect on on all of us and um uh John's the the waves that John
created are were huge and uh and will have effects
for you know I think forever so um know
with us I think most of us that that knew him very well it's kind of like I guess kids that have famous parents
right you know them as your parent you don't know them as this famous painter or something and then you get older and
then you realize that the the genius they have in their craft or the the understanding or the success or
whatever but to you they're still you know a parent so you have to like marry those things
and it's just for us it's just a little bit different because we can recognize that in him but
still knowing him as a person but the fact that he could you know figure out
this telescope stuff by him I mean just oh somebody told him and get a piece of milk jug and cut the glass off and grind
it with sand and make your own telescope and and then you know figure out how to make Vidant and science reconcile okay
check it off the list right give a talk and engage every single person in there
I I never saw him give a talk where the audience wasn't engaged with him or
explain these complex things in these simple things and and go somewhere and
have all these people want to take you home I mean that's something amazing that he had a connection with people after such a
short time that he could do it and we're very well aware of the the luck we have
and the the the gift that we got to be you know a friend of John and to
be one thing I thought was interesting is in working with the Al doing their 75th this year contacted and somebody
from staling and this guy you know I think was from New York or whatever but I mean
he was he was very very Curt and he proceeded to tell me you know so I said
I just want to talk about you know adding it for this month right but it was really interesting because I did not
know that there really is kind of an East Coast West Coast Division when it
comes to ATM stuff you know what I mean and their perspective is really really different and he just really didn't have
anything really positive to say about John but he goes we have people grinding mirrors that go up in space
and you know I had to stop and think I okay well thank you so much I'll let you go but he totally changed his tune but I
did not realize that you know we kind of used we like his mindset I think that's
what we relate to is that we it's it's organic it's easy you know
we okay spontaneous it's whatever and it it shouldn't be that way I mean it's just never was um getting rid of anybody
or never was putting anybody down or anything and that's what I like about this the sidewalk astronomers it was always very inclusive and you know what
I mean it was never whatever and I just was kind of shocked because I I I have never been to stalhane or know anybody
who who was there but it was just interesting that they kind of wanted to lay the claim on on amateur telescope
making and I kind of thought that's kind of funny because the West Coast people just they hang differently you know what
I mean we just I'm from California originally you know what I mean and um
people over here a little bit more wrapped up and my husband and I are learning um the east coast swing and
it's it's just a little bit different a little bit frenetic and then the one in California it's just more laidback has different steps to it and I had to laugh
because I find it the same way with a with uh with John Dobson and ATM and then maybe what Stellan talks about how
they carry themselves so you know I just I just kind of aligned myself with this guy just a little bit more organic a
little bit more easygo lucky or you know just make it work figure it out you know
what I mean and not be so hung up on all his other stuff you know what I mean and that's what I to me that's what I
appreciate it's not as stressful as doing the other way you know what I mean
so well I'm so glad you could all come and join us I thank you I was very nervous I wasn't gonna have I was like
really scared that our program was gonna last an hour and a half and I was gonna be freaking out and I didn't even really
have to give a presentation you guys did all the work for me and I really really appreciate that and I Scott I I thank
you for doing this I think yes we should do this every year you know we will we
will uh you know um I'm going to read a couple of comments just kind of uh
lasting you know last comments here from the chat um you know uh Jeff y says he
was a citizen of planet Earth um uh he's watching on YouTube uh um the you know
the comments from our guy in Russia Norm Hugh says man that was well said
um uh Harold lock says I just about cried when Ken was getting into the end
of things he says his mother will be 89 soon and some parallels with
her um you know Jeff y says I feel like I
know him well now you know good a lot of us feel that way um and he says thank
you for putting this together Donna it was very moving um and TK in the United
Arab Emirates says yes Donna thank you for this Martin eastburn in East Texas
says Donna this connection Will Go On Through many people viewing tonight but
all the attendees know him better and those yet to view this broadcast in
years to come thank you for bringing this to us
well they should be thanking you yeah yeah so well thank thanks to everyone that
participated tonight it is the culmination of all this kind of thing that and you guys can all go on YouTube
later and see it yeah that's right watch yourself on later on YouTube so we'll do
that we'll put our own comments up yeah so we'll be back um I was uh while
while the conversation were going on I was uh talking to uh our young astronomer in Nepal her name's deep to G
Tom and she will be our next special guest host of the 63rd Global star party
so she'll be putting together a list much like you did Donna but we'll see we'll see what's going on over there
I'll start I'll start sharing all these because you know I have to be honest I just a little bit tied up with work
lately and not really paying attention oh I'll start promoting them because I think these are nice
feel some connection now uh with with you and your group and um Peggy I want
to thank you for all the Insight that you gave us about uh Dobson you brought
you brought uh Tumbleweed to explore scientific when for those Midstates
Regional in the 2018 that's right that's right it was very it was fascinating for me to see it there so um so it's uh you
know I'm glad that that uh uh you know some of his telescopes are still doing
what he intended them to do you know so that's very cool I really am shocked
that it turned out so well I mean I I was because it was so tattered I just
like what did I volunteer for what the hell is this I mean I really I was stying and yeah thank God for wood putty
and I mean paint I can do great putty what putty I mean I mean I whole think I rebuilt all that stuff it was like yeah
what reconstructing it and you know and like I said I mean my sister had passed away and I was just so depressed and but
she was so she was such great therapy for me you know I mean so I have this Affinity towards her which is why I gave
her a a uh a Persona that's the perfect sidewalk astronomer um mentality to just
you know do whatever you have to do I said Katie and I were at a library and first my mirror turned sideways because
the furring nail came out and I didn't have a screwdriver so I used a dime to set my mirror to remove the tailgate and
then Katie puts hers up and the secondary falls off and she's chewing this wad of gum real fast to stick her
secondary back on with chewing gum and we had about 200 kids that night looking at the moon in Jupiter and I'm like I
have to stay on the moon because my mirror is not columnated at all right and Katie has kept checking her thing
and chewing gum all night to make sure her secondary didn't fall off again oh when I took it apart and I and the the
album that was in telescope was the LP of Back
to the Future and I had I was laughing I mean I came in and I'm going oh my God
what what the heck is this you know what I mean it was the funnest thing who would buy an LP of that of that anyway
but it was just the funniest thing I mean but when we do telescope making it
uh I really hope we can get some sponsorships and things get with ale I have a bunch of I have a bunch of LPS
the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so I'm just saying I got a bunch of LPS like that so
people gave me to to put in there so it's gonna sing whichever way you do it
anyway so yeah but thank you Scott we appreciate your time thank you guys have
a good evening what's left over yeah sleep sleep fast good night thanks to
the audience and um and we will be back uh with more Global star parties
actually we have two next week we got one on Tuesday uh with d katam and then
uh we've got a global star party on Saturday on the 25th um where it's going to be held
between uh the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
and uh the Astronomical Society down in New Zealand so it's called 45 degree
star party um so it's gonna be a lot of fun very interesting and uh you know all
of you guys that participated tonight um you know uh if you'd like to participate
a more Global star PRS you're certainly welcome uh you know uh Donna can give me
your emails or whatever or you can just reach out to me directly and I'd be happy to put you on the global Star
Party mailing list um and uh you know and and you can participate because you
know astronomy what connects us all is the sky and um uh you know I'm not the
first to say that but uh certainly uh you know I experience it every time we do Global star party and I know you do
too so we're gonna get you we're gonna get you to do the women of the 2022 calendar which was Al's calendar this
year all women imagers full of women in trivia so it's
absolutely gonna be fun to do all right well I'm in support of so no problem
okay bye bye all right good night everybody and we will see you uh tomorrow take care bye bye good night
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yeah