Here's something really cool!! I just wish this had been around when I was at school (that's right when slide rules were state-of-the-art) maybe I could have brought my astronomy grade up to a "C", well maybe "C-minus" J. Check out the latest thing from Microsoft Research, the WorldWide Telescope (WWT).
Its a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that lets you use your computer as a virtual telescope. Yeah you can throw out that optical glass thingy (just kidding, hang onto it, it'll be an expensive antique for your great-grandchildren J), and access imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world.
Enjoy!! And if you use this to get an "A" in astronomy, I want credit in the footnotes of the paper J.