In article ,
Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:42:46 GMT, (Paul Schlyter) wrote:

The major advantage with photography is reproducibility.

I would call that _a_ major advantage, not _the_ major advantage.
Advantages depend on intent, and reproducibility may not necessarily be
a goal.

The major advantage of visual observations is pleasu it's always
more pleasant to see something live than to see a photograph or video
of it.

Again, this depends on intent and personal taste. I've never seen any
object directly through a telescope (with the possible exception of
Saturn) that gave me anywhere near the satisfaction of seeing an image
appear on my screen, as the result of my own imaging effort. Without
imaging, I might not bother to own a telescope at all.

I agree that, for planets, galaxies and nebulae, imaging is
unbeatable.

I've not seen images that capture the contrasty nature of a star
cluster seen through a large scope, basically because no screen
technology that I know of can do the transition between space-black
and star-white in the space of no more than the eye can see. Some
planetarium shows come close.

I have seen Omega Centauri through a 36" Dobsonian (yes, I know this
is something of a best case for visual observation), and that is much
more spectacular than any picture of a globular that I've encountered,
even from Hubble or VLT-adaptive-optics.

There's something of the same for the Moon, the blackness of the
shadows of the mountains versus the light bright enough to make you
screw up your eyes a bit (even in my pathetic 4") reflected from their
peaks.

On the other hand, I've also felt a reasonable sense of achievement
from taking some technically awful wide-field photos with a 70/2.8
lens and a DSLR and using them to rediscover Ceres. Not sure it's a
delight I can convey it words, but it did feel good to see that moving
dot ...

Tom