'Amateur' Astronomer Snaps Pic of Planet-Forming Disk 59
The Bad Astronomer writes "Rolf Olsen, an 'amateur' astronomer in New Zealand, took an amazing photo of a disk of material around the star Beta Pictoris, the first time this has been seen outside of professional observatories. Incredibly, he snagged it with just a 25 cm (10") telescope! A comparison with an earlier pic from a much larger observatory indicates he nailed it, making this a milestone for amateur astronomy."
Re:Why the quotes around amateur? (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of people seem to think amateur astronomers who have even middling-decent astrophotography equipment must not really be amateurs. They should read the CCD imaging forum on www.cloudynights.com, and see what kinds of stuff people really use, and the results they get. Amateur astronomers aren't necessarily pros, or rich, but they invest their money differently. For the price of a good stereo, or home theater, or at the higher end a used car, you can get a really good set of astrophotography equipment.
In my mind, it's sort of a bias of perception against scientific hobbyists, whether they go for astronomy, or robotics, etc.
Re:Why is 'amateur' in quotes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why the quotes around amateur? (Score:4, Insightful)
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that putting quotes around a word indicates negation, rather than quotation.
I probably read too much BBC News. BBC News headlines are quite funny if you pretend they're using quotation marks the way Americans tend to abuse them.