The last five years have seen an explosion of activity to monitor the sky at optical wavelengths. The following summarizes an overview of the range of experiments currently being, or soon to be, undertaken in both cataloguing and monitoring the sky, and suggests scientific opportunities for the short- to medium- term in the arena of optical transient astronomy. In so doing, it applies the philosophy described by Warner (page 3) to the gamut of variability studies that are now burgeoning in observational astronomy.