[baj (Brad)]

I recently acquired an ASI533M and I was surprised to see a hardware binning option in sharpcap.



In the past I have used software binning which improved my SNR but had unusual side effects on my image sampling / scale in terms of astrometric measurements so I was curious to see how this hardware binning feature worked.



It looks to me like the hardware binning 2x2 clearly changed my image sampling so that I was undersampled. It also worked well in my astrometric software. If this is the case then for me this is great news since I only image asteroids and comets whose motion is not compensated by sidereal tracking. I rely on undersampling to minimize trailing in my images whilst keeping round stars.



Has anyone been experimenting with hardware binning?



If it works the way I think it does then I would love to hear from anyone with an IMX571 sensor such as the ASI2600. For me this camera in 3x3 hardware bin mode would be perfect for a 12 inch F3 newtonian. I would sell my EdgeHD11 and Hyperstar to get this camera if it could give pixels that were effectively 11.28 microns


Brad.