Excellent thought provoking thread Glend.
From an amateur Supernova discoverers point of view much has changed recently and will (as it should) continue to from hereon in.
BOSS discoveries stand at 156 and we would love to see that at 200 but that is becoming more and more a difficult a target.
There are many professional supernova search surveys now as well as orbiting satellites (many listed below) that will make our goal all the more difficult. Throw ontop of that the LSST and every other SBBS (Super Big Bleedin Scopes) that are in the works and you would think time for the amateur to give up!
Well not yet anyway.
The evolution of Supernova discovery is exciting.
From the naked eye discoveries by the chinese in 185, by Arab/Japanese/Chinese in 1054, Kepler 1604 then onto Bob Evans telescopic discoveries in the 80/90s, then amateur CCD Supernova discoveries by Monard, Puckett, Armstrong, Boles, BOSS and others we now arrive at mass discoveries by dedicated professional robotic surveys.
The good news is that surveys are generating vast amounts of data and and some of these surveys like ASAS SN (
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/...in/index.shtml) the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernova still rely on amateurs assisting with confirmations. Greg Bock and I have been involved with Asassn now for about 18 months, when we can and weather permitting we schedule follow up of targets, mostly the Southern ones and send our images back for further analysis to see if they confirm their discovery. Asassn have many many professional astronomers on board whose work involves supernova. When our images confirm the new object, we are very generously included in or even lead author in the ATel (Astronomers Telegram -
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/) that is subsequently released.
They have gone much further including us in several professional papers submitted to and published by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
So yes Glen, Amateur Astronomy is and will change in 2017, yes amateurs will still have an important role to play and yes amateur astronomers can have an even greater collaboration with professional astronomers.
Changes/Challenges for 2017 and beyond? The spread of LED street lighting - popping up in every new estate and soon coming to a pole near you.
And the Trump card..... it's effect on Astro/Science funding in the US and beyond.
ASAS-SN: Transients, Supernovae
Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey:
CRTS discoveries page, (Supernovae only, Possible supernovae)
MLS search page (Supernovae only, Possible supernovae)
Supernova hunt page
Dark Energy Survey Bright Transients
Gaia Photometric Science Alerts programme Alert index
La Silla-QUEST (no published list)
MASTER robotic Net List of optical transients, Supernovae
OGLE-IV wide field survey Discovery images Rapid Transient Detection system
Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (no published list)
PS1 Science Consortium Discoveries
ROTSE collaboration: Discoveries page