Every time I image an 18th magnitude star for variability or capture a 17th magnitude nebula, I wonder at how things have changed over the last 30 years.
I enjoyed visual observing before neck arthritis stopped play, but these days I get a kick out of what we can do via imaging.
I remember looking at long duration photography in the 80s and thinking I would be really smug if I reached 13th mag with my 8″ Fullerscopes Newtonian and some Tri-X. Its a 1sec exposure with a modern CCD.