[RightWhale]

N.B.: Quito, Ecuador ought to be the best place on earth for amateur astronomy, on the equator and a couple of miles up. Any night you should be able to see almost the entire sky pole to pole all the way around. Can't imagine wanting any less than that.

[sleavelessinseattle]

You raise a great point, actually...AS advances in adaptive optics (that compensate for atmospheric "mirage" distortion as light reaches a terrestrial telescope) get better, WILL there be a need to build a Bigger Better Visible light Telescope in Space? I know the computer combination of images from synchronized optical telescopes into a single high res image is creating virtual "lenses" of great size and precision.