Re: [ATM] interesting review of movie on John Dobson

[James P Crombie <jpcrombie@pei.eastlink.ca>]

http://telescopepictures.com/

Joe wrote:

>Ok, when and where can this be seen?
>
>Guy Brandenburg wrote:
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>>An interesting review of the Dobson movie:
>>===========================================
>>John Dobson is at least as old as some of Tim Burton's
>>cadavers, and it may be that humanity is divided
>>between those who would let themselves be stopped by
>>him in the street and those who would keep walking.
>>With some regret, I place myself among the latter. If
>>I were to pass him in Greenwich Village or on
>>Fisherman's Wharf, the sight of his weathered beret
>>and wizened face would stiffen my shoulders. And once
>>I'd gotten a load of his telescope and his vaguely
>>disreputable come-on—"Come see the moon!"—nothing on
>>Earth would persuade me to linger.
>>
>>But then, Dobson, the 89-year- old hero of Jeffrey Fox
>>Jacobs' documentary "A Sidewalk Astronomer" doesn't
>>want to show you anything on Earth. Self-taught and
>>staggeringly articulate, he's a former Vedantic monk
>>who, way back in the '40s, caught a glimpse of the
>>heavens and decided, as he says, "everyone's got to
>>see this." From there, he created the Dobsonian
>>telescope mount, an ingeniously simple apparatus that
>>suddenly made stargazing available to the masses.
>>
>>Today, whether he's lecturing at colleges and
>>conventions or treating passers-by to views of the sun
>>and moon, Dobson is still entreating everyone to look
>>up. He has, like all the best teachers, a gift for the
>>honed sentence. "We're made out of the dust of
>>exploded stars," he proclaims, a pretty existential
>>truism that pales next to this one: "All habitats are
>>temporary." And he has, in Jacobs, a tireless devotee,
>>who trails him from San Francisco to Vermont recording
>>each crotchety opinion.
>>
>>Your affection for Jacobs' enterprise may be
>>determined by your feelings for Dobson. From my angle,
>>he seems too reflexive with the quips and too addicted
>>to being the smartest guy in the room. (See how he
>>bridles when an actual astronomer challenges his ideas
>>about the Big Bang and dark matter.)
>>And it's an unexplored irony that the man who wants us
>>to know everything about the cosmos tells us so little
>>about his own universe.
>>
>>Jacobs' disinclination to probe this prickly fellow is
>>what keeps A Sidewalk Astronomer squarely in the realm
>>of educational TV But good- for-you can still be good
>>for you. 
>>
>>With its clever use of NASA satellite footage and
>>animation, the movie does give us a vivid sampling of
>>astronomical wonders. For those of us who would
>>otherwise pass John Dobson on the street, we can now
>>at least see what he wanted to show us: "Here are the
>>actors... hydrogen and helium. What is the name of the
>>play? Folly. Where is the theater? In space. Where do
>>you go to get there? In time."          CP
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Guy  Brandenburg
>>Washington, DC
>>My home page:
>>http://home.earthlink.net/~gfbranden/GFB_Home_Page.html
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>> 
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