On Sun, 4 Mar 2007 15:34:56 -0800, "Starlord"
wrote:

I have seen planetary photos done with film that would blow away most ccd
ones.
remember, one pic with film has over 3 megs of data in it.

Then you've never seen any good digital images. They are so far beyond
film there's no comparison. Film itself is lower resolution, lower
dynamic range, lower sensitivity, and higher noise. Good planetary
imaging requires taking many (ideally, hundreds) of very short exposure
images (to reduce seeing), and summing them (to reduce noise). Film
isn't sensitive enough for the short exposures, and even if it were,
scanning and stacking that many images for noise control would be a
nightmare.

People with webcams are routinely producing planetary images these days
that are far superior to the best film shots ever made, by anybody.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com