I made this film. I got to know John Dobson well. He was a remarkable man; a free spirit, but a man on a mission who always showed up on time. Dobson was very much into Eastern mysticism. As a young man he lived for a time in a Buddhist monastery. Apparently John was a bit much for the monks, so he and they parted ways. But much of his cosmology was based on the Buddhist concept of Maya (that which exists, but is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal). The PBS execs were very leery about profiling an amateur astronomer, especially someone like John Dobson. Fortunately, The Smithsonian Magazine had just come out and contained a beautiful feature article on John and his Sidewalk Astronomers. So that’s what sold it - if he was good enough for the Smithsonian he must be okay for PBS. I wanted the film to just contrast Dobson and his work at bring astronomy to the people, against that of the professional scientist - astronomer Tony Tyson. But PBS insisted a woman be featured too. So that’s why Vera Rubin is in it (of course Rubin made some major contributions. But I feel it would have had a more dramatic structure and more compelling if it were just the two of them). BTW - the entire 6 part series is available on DVD - KCET-TV produced. (my Ep.2 - 'Searching for Black Holes' is the best of the bunch)
"If they don't see the universe, they won't wonder about it," "What's the use of somebody who doesn't wonder? If they don't wonder, they're dead." Dobson.
Here is one of the most endearing openings of all time to an astronomy special on National PBS TV in the early 1990's. Of all the places the film makers toured around the world to science institutions, mountaintop observatories and interviewed highly paid professional astronomers and government research people, why do you think the beautiful opening narrative by Richard Chamberlain and first 10 minutes of the 6 part one hour specials started with this man? The film makers, I was told later by John Dobson, had to catch up with him one day in Crater Lake Oregon. I knew John Dobson personally as a friend and spent possibly hundreds of hours with him providing public sidewalk astronomy and for schools and students when Dobson visited to stay in the Portland area while he lectured on cosmology and provided his telescope building classes at Sean's Astronomy Shop in Battleground Washington near Portland Oregon. John Dobson passed away last Wednesday - Mark Seibold, Portland/Sandy Oregon www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-john-dobson-20140119,0,6483430.story#axzz2qtclMrAB
There is a European version in whole here in RU-vid, overdubbed word for word by a British woman's voice, with subtitles in Dutch or German. Search for it. Good luck.
