1 minute read

Charge-Coupled Device

Ccds, Professionals, And Amateurs



With web-based star catalogues and other Internet and electronic resources, such as the Hubble Guide Star Catalog and the Lowell Observatory Asteroid Database, professional and amateur astronomers have begun sharing resources and comparing data in hopes of creating a more accurate and complete picture of the heavens. Organizations such as the Amateur Sky Survey help individuals coordinate and share data with others. Thanks to CCDs, amateurs have often contributed as significantly to these projects as professional astronomers have. Paul Comba, an amateur based in Arizona, discovered and registered some 300 previously unknown asteroids in 1996–97, after adding a digital camera to his telescope. In 1998, astrophysics student Gianluca Masi recorded the existence of an unknown variable star, discovered with the use of his Kodak KAF-0400 CCD, mounted in a Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-7 camera. CCDs help level the playing field in the science of astrometry, drastically reducing the equipment barrier between the amateur and the professional.




Resources

Periodicals

di Cicco, Dennis. "Measuring the Sky with CCDs." Sky & Telescope 94 (December 1997): 115-18.

Gombert, Glenn, and Tom Droege. "Boldness: The Amateur Sky Survey." Sky & Telescope 95 (February 1998): 42-45.

Hannon, James. "Warming Up to Digital Imaging." Sky & Telescope 97 (March 1999): 129.

Masi, Gianluca. "CCDs, Small Scopes, and the Urban Amateur." Sky & Telescope 95 (February 1998): 109-12.

Terrance, Gregory. "Capture the Sky on a CCD: Digital Imaging with a CCD Camera Is Revolutionizing the Way Amateur Astronomers Record Planets and Galaxies." Astronomy 28 (February 2000): 72.


Kenneth R. Shepherd

Additional topics

Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Categorical judgement to ChimaeraCharge-Coupled Device - How The Devices Work, Applications In Astronomy, Ccds, Professionals, And Amateurs