I would like to know how the imagers, and other members of IIS, feel about 'for hire' operations, or 'data buy services' appearing and being used in what is supposed to be an amateur forum. I realise imaging can be seen as a budget related exercise, and so perhaps buying data or rental access to high end equipment is just a more cost effective access path than paying for it yourself. However, does this not reduce our appreciation of what a dedicated amateur can produce from his/her backyard or on a dark site trip?
Perhaps this has been debated in the past and there is already some agreement on this direction, if so let me know. Are we just reducing imaging to processing of "store bought" data? Personally if i paid for data and just processed it i would feel like i was mis-representing my work. Perhaps i am just a luddite, what do you think?
