newsletters and clubs. Now, with almost no delay, amateurs can upload high qual-
ity photos with coordinates that help to make discoveries that are the envy of the
professionals. Astronomy has become a more democratic and accessible science;
the knowledge of the night sky has been opened, is shared by more people and the
big science is now accessible to more small actors. Professionals and amateurs to-
gether look further into the stars – albeit with different levels of knowledge, but no
longer divided by light years of distance between their roles.
What we have seen here are examples where serious hobbyists complement and
amplify the work of the professionals and a scattering of the strict borders between
levels of practice. It should be emphasised again how the Pro-Am astronomy ac-
tivities are networked throughout the community. Of course there are many soli-
tary amateurs, but the there is a considerable number of people who are engaged
in the Pro-Am scene with numerous forums, magazines, associations, large work-
shops and regular events such as Star parties.
We can also see this happening in other fields, as in the development of Lego Mind-
storms toys and the famous computer game Sims. In these examples the commu-
nity of users develop and co-designing parts of the experience. In the case of Sims
about 90 percent of the game content was created by users and fans (Leadbeater &
Miller 2004: 11). However, in these examples one should remember that the moth-
er companies are still in strict control of the interfaces for engagement – the mate-
rial production or the code of the software. The companies here still own the chan-
nels for the realization of the Pro-Ams’ work. To use Wark’s (2004) term, they
remain the “vectorialists”.
The 1987A supernova
came to be a defining event
for the bridging of profes-
sionals and amateurs within
astronomy.