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When I was little, I read Sky and Telescope, and I was always delighted when I saw that an amateur had discovered a supernova.

Now I imagine that even amateurs can do that process automatically. There's probably a public domain program to compare starfield images. But I don't know if that makes them more or less exciting to find.

I know that there are about half a million supernovae exploding at any one time somewhere inside the Hubble Horizon. I asked about that in an earlier question.

So my question is, given all this, do amateurs still excitedly search for supernovae hoping to get their name in Sky and Telescope?

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Yes, and they find them.

The vast majority of supernovae are discovered by automated transient detectors, such as ZTF. But not all. Looking at the data on Rochester astronomy, a source for supernovae data, we can see a list of all supernovae in 2024. And amateurs have discovered some of them!

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    $\begingroup$ thank you! 10,000 so far this year, 1 in 100 are amateur. $\endgroup$
    – Miss_Understands
    Commented Jul 27 at 10:35

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