What are the other advantages of CCD imaging as compared to photographic imaging?
Because of a CCD chip’s greatly increased light-sensitivity compared to film, exposure times are typically much shorter; as stated above, a 2-minute unguided exposure of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) with the Meade 216XT CCD Imager, for example, outresolves photographic exposures of 30 minutes’ duration. The CCD image provides instant gratification—the image is immediately visible on your PC display as soon as it has been taken, without the normal darkroom work required of film. In addition film suffers from a phenomenon called reciprocity failure: the photographic emulsion becomes less and less sensitive as exposure time is increased; by contrast, the response curve of a CCD imager is linear: twice the exposure time yields exactly twice the results. And, post-exposure image processing provides an amazing level of image enhancement, an enhancement that is simply not possible with film. With advanced image processing techniques, CCD images through amateur telescopes have been taken of Jupi
