The Science Times today had a nice article by Dennis Overbye about the ongoing project to build the Giant Magellan Telescope, expected to be built in Chile in 2016. Among the things it is going to study are extra-solar planets (i.e. planets in other star-systems), which is rather exciting. There’s also an excellent discussion of the sorts of challenges involved in grinding and polishing mirrors of that huge size, and a good sense of the sort of scientific, financial, and sociological issues involved with such a huge project.

It was rather nice then, to have on the same day an article about astronomy and construction of telescopes, in the LA Times, which was in their “Outdoors” section. Given that the people at the LA Times can’t bring themselves to have a science section -a fact that should be to their great shame- and given that it was not really about science itself, I suppose the Outdoors section is in fact appropriate. The rather nice article, by Hugo Martin, was mostly about John Dobson, who is quite a character. He is well-known for championing the cause of amateur astronomy, and runs workshops to show people how to contruct their own telescopes, right down to techniques for grinding mirrors. Now 90 years old and still very active (and with quite a fan base) been known to show up at grocery store parking lots with a telescope and try to get people to look at the heavens for a little while before heading on their way. There’s apparently a newly released film about him, and the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers club he co-founded. (See their page for telescope-building resources of information, for example, the DIY course entitled: “You Silly Goose!” Building a Telescope with John Dobson” . Fellow Profs, don’t you sometimes wish you could name your courses like that?! )

He also has some, how shall I put it?….. theories…. of his own about cosmology, which I’m glad to say are not discussed. I do recommend reading the piece.

One fly in the ointment: According to the article, “Physicians and Cosmologists dismiss his theory” . Physicians!? Is the LA Times editorial team really as science-ignorant as all that (which would fit with the lack of a science section), or did they really mean that the medical community has weighed in on a cosmological debate? Heaven help us…..!

-cvj