The Universe Through Hubble's Eye.

I've been fortunate to find other amateur astronomers on the Hubble team - kindred spirits who know the night sky and appreciate what some of the celestial objects in Hubble's remarkable images look like through ordinary telescopes on the ground. He joined the Hubble team in 1997, right about the time I was shifting my aspirations from becoming a professional astronomer to writing about astronomy. For example, we've put our amateur hats on to assemble online collections of Hubble images taken of objects from the Messier and Caldwell catalogs, so that other backyard astronomers could compare their views to Hubble's. Looking back at Hubble's 30 years (and onward to the future), I can't help but feel that Hubble's story and mine have been intertwined, and not just because I work on the team. [Extracted from the article]