Dobsonian Telescopes

Designed by John Dobson, the mount is composed by a flat ground base that allows horizontal movements, and rocker box that sits on the flat ground base and holds a Newtonian telescope and allows vertical movements. The horizontal and vertical movements are possible with smooth friction materials like Teflon. Dobsonian mounts are very steady compared with many “tripod-based” telescope mounts like single-arm Alt-Az or lightweight equatorial mounts. They also are unexpensive to manufacture. This simple but solid mount design in combination with a Newtonian telescope, becomes the “Best Bang for the Buck” as the popular denomination reference for the best value regarding light gathering capability.