Practical Astronomy August – The Dobsonian Telescope

This month we will be discussing the Dobsonian Telescope, one of the more common telescope types used by amateur astronomers, primarily for visual observing. The Dobsonian consists of a Newtonian OTA, mounted on a simple alt/az mount, named after the late John Dobson, “The Sidewalk Astronomer of San Francisco”, who popularised these for their ease of setup and use for visual observing.