Amateur Astronomy Glows Bright with New Technology points out how amateurs with new, computerized equipment recorded the Columbia disaster:
Long minutes before NASA’s Mission Control or even the astronauts themselves knew there was trouble, a retired businessman, some off-duty Silicon Valley techies and a few dozen other ordinary people across the western United States had begun recording evidence of the shuttle Columbia’s demise.
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About 15 of their home videos strung together gave the world the only composite look at the disaster, a patchwork of images that showed the orbiter streaking across the sky, losing a piece of its left wing every two or three seconds before finally breaking apart over central Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard.“I don’t think any of us in our wildest dreams would have thought the public would have captured that much video,” said Paul Hill, a NASA flight director who took charge of gathering evidence in the disaster’s aftermath.
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Today, with the push of a few buttons, affordable and computer-driven telescopes automatically fix on any celestial body. The new technology also makes it easier to photograph and videotape what astronomers see.