PS
I didn't mean to sound down or depressive - I reread my comments and found them less than uplifting.
Sure - amateurs should try to do the best they can - especially if they are well funded amateurs with better equipment.
As the article points out, Tucker discovered 100 new asteroids (out of 4812 observed) in 4 years - Thats roughly 25 a year. But his complex setup is more semi-professional than amateur.
Asteroid hunting is their best shot - the extrasolar planet stuff, I think is a little overreaching.
SDAI-Tech1