Duration of the effective exposures given to photographic plates in the 20-inch reflector

Summary

It is a general opinion that the longer the time a sensitive film is exposed, in a photographic instrument, under clear atmospheric conditions, the greater will be the number of stars and the extent of nebulosity imprinted upon the film. But so far as my experience enables me to judge, after twelve years' use of the 20-inch reflector, and more than two years' use of an excellent and specially-made portrait lens combination of 5-inches aperture and 19-inches focus, the limit of photographic effect is reached sometime within ten to twelve hours on clear nights, and with very sensitive films, in the 20-inch reflector. With the 5-inch lens very much longer exposures may be given before the darkening of the films, by atmospheric glare and diffraction effects, reach the same degree of density as in the reflector.

The photographic effect produced by the 5-inch lens with an exposure of two or three hours and upwards is about two stellar magnitudes less than that given by the reflector in the same time and with films of equal sensitiveness. It would, therefore, appear that, given sufficient time, the atmospheric glare would, in both instruments, mask or extinguish the light of faint stars and faint nebulosity, which is provisionally assumed to be equal to that of 18th magnitude stars. When that limit has been reached no fainter light-effect than this would be imprinted on the films; and upon these premises the questions in the following section require consideration.