Advances in modern television detection techniques have resulted in a new and highly effective method for the study of astronomical objects. Its quantum efficiency approaches that of the instrument's input photocathode, the errors of light-flux measurement are in the tenths of a per cent, and use with on-line computers greatly reduces the time required to process observations. Practical use of the television techniques in the world's leading observatories has demonstrated its promise and produced qualitatively new results in studies of faint variable stars, x-ray sources, galaxies, quasars, and radio sources.