Hey guys,

I was just thiking the other day about the history of telescopes, since most the members on here seem to be *cough* in thier mid ages, what were telescope like when you first started astronomy?

Expensive?
What size optics were avilable?
And what I wonder - has the qaulity of "seeing" improved through better optics? or is it more or less the same as 20 or 30 years ago?

I wonder also the future of telescopes, what kind of improvments and upgrades do you see comming for the normal amature telescope?

I cant think of any other way that you could really improve the average telescope except by using larger optics.

I supose maybe on day it will all be digital imagery, perhaps when you look at saturn, the telescope will process the incomming light and sort of enhance the image using digital EP's or some crazy idea like that

Would love to hear some of your ideas/opinions!