Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
Funny enough I woke up this am turned on BBC and there you were. This is great publicity for astronomy with a wide audience which may inspire many young people into astronomy.
I also hope this inspires others on IFAS to take up the gauntlet. There must be quite a few Go To telescopes in 10 to 14 inch range plus CCDs in Ireland that could be used and try there hands in supernova hunting. The more telescopes imaging these galaxies the higher chance of discovery. Although Dave imaged 2800 galaxies with one telescope, how about 10 telescopes imaging 10,000 galaxies. (1000 galaxies per telescope. This is really possible within one nights observation. Statistically works out to about 3 supernovae discoveries in one night. A group of telescopes takes images while another group analyses the images for suspected candidates.
Of course we did have an IFAS AOP programme initiated by Dave Mc Donald to hunt for supernovae about 5 yaers ago. This could be resurected again if an enthusiatic group within IFAS is interested.
You will be surprised that the help and expertise is here in IFAS to do this kind of observational research. If your interested let us know.
  