We summarize of more than 25 years of research with the three filter, intermediate-band, $\Delta a$ photometric system. It investigates the flux depression at $\lambda 5200$ found in magnetic chemically peculiar (CP) objects. Starting with photoelectric measurements it has steadily developed introducing new and more efficient filters as well as the modern CCD technique. So far more than twenty papers were devoted to searching for new CP stars in our Milky Way up to distances of 5000 pc and even in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the latter, the first extragalactic CP stars were detected. In addition, we have presented theoretical isochrones and synthetic colors from the latest available stellar atmospheres. The theoretical predictions agree very well with observations allowing not only to determine the reddening and age of open clusters from our photometry but also to investigate the flux depression at $\lambda 5200$ in more detail. As an outlook, we present a new approach to search for chemically peculiar horizontal branch stars in globular clusters and to detect stellar variability of various objects observed during our photometric observations.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html