If you take a picture it will last longer.
A picture of a solar eclipse or the transition of a moon's shadow across the face of Jupiter brings back the experience better than anything else could, but capturing those images can be difficult without the right photography skills and equipment. However, astrophotography is getting easier, and cameras are getting better and less expensive.
DSLR Cameras
Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras are becoming the camera of choice for amateur astronomers. It has always been a camera style associated with high quality images and depth of field--very important in astrophotography--and falling prices have made DSLR cameras more available. The viewing field is an optical image instead of the LED side panels of many cameras, and this makes it easy to line up on astronomical objects. The camera is super fast because of the double shutters--one to start the light capture process and another to stop it. DLSR cameras can take 3 to 10 pictures a second, which is useful for some events--such as the shoemaker-Levy collision with Jupiter in 1994. The easy lens changing mechanism also makes it possible to attach the cameras to a telescope.
CCD Cameras
Charged Couple Display (CCD) cameras are very inexpensive. They also use arrays of solid state pixels instead of film which makes CCD cameras much more compatible with computers. This opens up a lot of possibilities that have been exploited by amateur and professional astronomers and photographers. There are computer programs to help you aim your telescope and camera. It also is easy to automatically transfer your pictures to the computer. You can not only print them on a color printer, but you can attach them easily to emails to fellow astrophotography aficionados.
Webcam Astrophotography
Webcam astrophotography works very differently from other systems. Lots of pictures are taken--like a short movie--and then the bad ones are eliminated. The remaining pictures are superimposed to make a clear image. This means that you can use a very cheap camera--less than $100--to make an excellent picture. It also means you can only use this technique with things that do not move quickly. Webcams easily attach to the eyepieces of any camera. Because they are made to work with computers, webcam programs can display controls on your computer that set focal lengths, f-stops and other parameters of interest with large, clear interfaces that are easy to read at night.
Tags: with computers