Planet-wide camera

There are now amateur astronomers all over the world. Many now have telescopes with automatic sighting (servo mounts), and most can be connected to a computer for control. Many also have adapted cameras for long exposure shots in place of a traditional viewfinder. And almost all have an internet connection. [see aperture synthesis link] The software controlling these telescopes could be linked to a central server. This server could, when the astronomer were not using the telescope themselves, point it at a predetermined target for observation. Additional control could be used to skip telescopes in areas with of poor wheather, set exposure time, and so on.The same server would collect the resulting images,and send them to a supercomputer (or a distributed computing system like folding@home) to be assembled into a single image. With a good number of telescopes (a few hundred) spread across the planet, almost the entire nightside could become one large composite lens, capable of incredibly high resolution. The actual light-gathering capability would be very low compared to a 'real' telescope, but sufficient for brighter targets of observation such as planets and nearby asteroids and comets. Continued observation of a single target for several rotations (with some telescopes even able to observe for nearly a full half-rotation) could increase the light-gathering capability. An additional benefit, if sufficient computing power were available, would be almost real-time observation of remote targets in high resolution. Imaging a live (minus the ~2000s light-speed lag) feed of volcanoes erupting the surface of Io.