At several places amateurs have tried to contribute in scientific projects of professional astronomers. At first this contribution was made with visual observations. Later, photoelectric contributions followed. Photoelectric work is quite difficult though, as I found out myself. So when CCD video got on the market for prices that were within amateur range and with sensitivities suitable for astronomical purposes, my interest was more than average. Recording events with CCD video may be relatively simple, reducing the resulting recordings proved to be quite difficult after all.
As I didn't know at that time, several amateurs in Europe used the same cheap Philips module to record a range of interesting events. None of them were reduced properly because everyone struggled with the same problem.