I thought it would be interesting to post an example of the significant advantage CCD imaging has brought to amateur astronomy. The image on the left is from 1975 taken with a home made 5" F/4 wright Schmidt guided with an an off axis 5" F/8 Schmidt cassegrain. This is a manually guided 1.5 hour exposure using 103aF film and an R60 filter, the HAlpha filter of the day. It was one of the first amateur images published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in their Mercury Magazine as an example of how amateur images rivaled those of professionals. Not a good image by todays standards...
The one on the right is a first light 60min HAlpha image taken with a home made 8" F/2.6 catadioptric, taken 30 years later in 2005 using an SBIG STL11000m self guided camera.
I think the difference speaks for its self. While I miss the romance of the darkroom and wet chemistry there is no comparison in the image quality and capability available to amateurs today. Happy Imaging... Dave
The one on the right is a first light 60min HAlpha image taken with a home made 8" F/2.6 catadioptric, taken 30 years later in 2005 using an SBIG STL11000m self guided camera.
I think the difference speaks for its self. While I miss the romance of the darkroom and wet chemistry there is no comparison in the image quality and capability available to amateurs today. Happy Imaging... Dave
Attached Image:
