It's a horse that should perhaps be beaten more frequently. There are many brighter variables (V<~8) for which the only (potential) comparison stars are more than ~1 degree distant. (The suspected eclipsing binary Delta-1 Lyr and the important Herbig Be star V380 Cep come immediately to mind.) Wide field CCD imaging, even with a modest chip size, becomes possible with small objectives, small f-ratios and short exposures. For the visual observers, such images could provide charts which closely reflect what is seen at the eyepiece. An ST-7E with a small aperture, short focus lens will be used here in our long-term photometric monitoring program of Be/Gamma Cas stars, the brighter symbiotic stars, and related objects. A good recent example of what could be done can be found in John P. Gleason's glorious image of the Vela nebula taken with a Nikon 180mm f/2.8 ED Lens and Steve Mandel's Wide Field Adaptor. John's image is at http://vsnet.celestialimage.com/page119.html. Regards, Thom Gandet Brian Skiff wrote: > > This is probably beating a dead horse, but: cases such as these argue > again for using an ordinary 50mm camera lens with a CCD to take short > exposures with a standard photometric filter, and doing straightforward > photometry on the images. > > \Brian -- ************************************************************************ Lizard Hollow Observatory Thomas L. Gandet, Director PO Box 77021 Tucson, AZ 85703-7021 USA ************************************************************************