[Conan the Librarian]

Before photography, even the best scopes showed these beauties as fuzzy blobs. It wasn’t until Edwin Hubble that someone figured out that they were outside of the Galaxy.

Now, many amateur astronomers have scopes, cameras, and other equipment that the giants of Astronomy would have killed for. We can see what they only dreamed about.

[econjack]

If you want to get an idea of just how good amateur scopes are now, watch this video of the International Space Station:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ChAtseIjgm0&feature=related

[RightWhale]

many amateur astronomers have scopes, cameras, and other equipment that the giants of Astronomy would have killed for.

True and just like computers. It has come so far so quickly and anybody under 30 might never stop to think about it.