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You bring up some interesting points Stuart.
With regards to 1x1 binning for colour Martin Pugh and Don Goldman and I think R Jay Gabany all said to do colour in 1x1.
I have started doing this on a few images having almost always used 2x2 binning on rgb before (I have done 1x1 on a few occassions).
I think the answer is it depends on what you are shooting and your setup. All these guys are shooting with 3 metre focal length scopes so its a different scenario. With my CDK17 I noticed 1x1 RGB were cleaner, more detailed, less vignetted and cleaned up with callibration better than 2x2 would. So with that setup I think there is a definite improvement over 2x2. As far as how much longer it takes, it does not seem to be 2 or 4 times longer at all. If the data is clean and callibrates better it leads to a nicer image. Martin did recommend longer rgb times than what is typically seen on this site.
Also other factors come into it. Doing a 20 -30 hour masterpiece of every object you intend to image may not be everyone's thing.
Or if you travel to a dark site it most certainly is not a practical approach. Its for those with a home or remote observatory where you can buildup the hours.
But your idea of putting more into the luminance has some merit.
I think 1x1 binned colour makes sense for galaxies or dim objects with fine detail or any object really at long focal length.
But for a widefield perhaps not so much especially at a travelled to dark site where imaging time is precious.
Greg.
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