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John Dobson came to Crater Lake often in the 1970s to 1990s with his Dobsonian homemade telescopes. Below is an interview with Dr. Owen Hoffman about the experiences with John Dobson. To find out more about this famous and forward-thinking man, google John Dobson.

photos by Ranger Lloyd Smith

Owen Hoffman’s JD Interview Published 2004-10-22 16:24:16 Date: July 31, 2004 Place: Peyton Room, Crater Lake Lodge, Crater Lake National Park Interviewee: John Lowery Dobson, 88 Interviewer: F. Owen Hoffman Can you say something about your experiences at Crater Lake? I can’t recall all the times we visited Crater Lake. It was many times. I don’t think it was annually, but certainly many times during the course of the years. I remember one time when we came to Crater Lake from Glacier Point in Yosemite. The tube of the 24 incher had been drenched by a heavy rainstorm. It was too heavy for use. But Hank Tanski and John Salinas got us all sorts of heavy weights, about 40 lbs of steel, so that the telescope could be used at the Rim. They put traffic cones on the parking area to reserve the space for our telescopes and we could give slide presentations in the Community House after the formal talks given by park naturalists. It is important to give astronomical slide shows, before letting the visitors look through the telescopes, otherwise the visitors may not understand what they see. We are grateful for the help of Hank Tanski and John Salinas. Hank would even let us shower in his house at Park Headquarters. And he even arranged subsidies for our meals ($7.00 a day if we ate on our own and $12.00 if we ate in the restaurant).   Over how many summers did the Sidewalk Astronomers visit Crater Lake? I can’t recall, but certainly it was several summers in a row. We would stay for a week or two, several of us. Unfortunately, we have no written accounts of our activities at Crate Lake, and no photographs. We never had cameras. I think our first visit was in the late 1970’s and our last was in the 1990’s. We gave slide shows before letting the visitors use the telescopes.  Usually we start with all the telescopes on the planets, or the Moon, and then, after mothers with little kids would leave, we take requests and show them what they want to see, star clusters, galaxies etcetera. But one year, when we had been in the park for some time. I noticed that the back of my van was filled with food. I had no idea where this food came from. We inquired around, then asked the ladies who worked at the Lodge. They were the girlfriends of the boys who worked on the boats. It was the boat crew who purchased all that food. They had sandwiches, fruit, and all sorts of delicious stuff. They had put all of that food in the back of my van. God bless ’em! We used to do the boat trip and while down on the lake, we used to use our hands to scape up the pollen floating on the surface of the lake and we would consume it. It was very good food, but no delicacy. It’s the biggest pollen source that I’ve ever seen. I remember coming to Crater Lake in early July and having thirty foot snow banks. We would put our milk in the snow banks. We even went through a blizzard at Crater Lake on the 4th of July. One time at Crater Lake, we had our telescopes set up at the Rim Village area. A man came up to me and said, “These look like Dobsonians.” I said, “Yes, I’m Dobson.” The man replied as he shook my hand, “It’s not often you get to shake hands with a Newton!” [laughter].