From 1995 until 2016, Dickinson edited and co-owned SkyNews, Canada’s magazine of stargazing. He stepped down from editorial duties when he learned of his diagnosis, selling the magazine to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, who brought on Gary Seronik as the new editor.
From 1981 until the mid-2000s, Dickinson also wrote a weekly astronomy column for The Toronto Star newspaper, taking over the popular column from long-time author and legendary Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg. Another of Dickinson’s regular platforms for promoting astronomy was television, through frequent appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s on Canada’s Discovery Channel.
As an accomplished astrophotographer, Dickinson’s photographs have appeared in publications as wide-ranging as Australian Geographic and Reader's Digest. And in 2000, the U.S. Postal Service featured one of his photographs of the Moon on a stamp.
Among his numerous awards are the New York Academy of Sciences’ Children’s Book of the Year (1988), the Royal Canadian Institute’s Sandford Fleming Medal (1992), Industry Canada’s Michael Smith Award for Public Promotion of Science (1993), and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts Award (1996). He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Trent University and Queen’s University. In 1995, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to public understanding of astronomy.
In 1994, asteroid #5272 was officially named Dickinson by the International Astronomical Union in his honor.
Dickinson's ability to explain the universe and simplify astronomical concepts in ways easily understood by the average reader has gained him a huge international audience. Many thousands of people have developed an interest in astronomy and the wonders of the universe as the result of his work.
His love for astronomy was infectious, as anyone who attended one of his wonderful lectures will attest. He once said, “I want to do what I’m doing for as long as I can. There’s just so much more to know and see, and I’m still excited as a kid about new discoveries. I’ll never run out of things to write about — I’ll just run out of time.”
His wife Susan, who served as Dickinson’s business partner in many book and magazine projects, has written: “He loved getting up each morning because every day, he lived and breathed his passion. So captivated was he by the cosmos that he made it his mission to endeavour, through his writings, his astrophotography and his lectures, to impart some of his awe and appreciation of the universe to others.
“Although he was physically tethered to this planet, his mind soared among the stars, and the time he spent gazing skyward from a dark country site brought him peace and serenity. Now he’s at one with the universe that enchanted him for a lifetime.”