Hi Erik,
I have just recently puchased an SX Superstar and although I haven't used the binning option it will do it as I was sent some example shots from the manufacturer showing the difference between binned and non binned as a comparo with the Lodestar. The Superstar has a higher pixel count you see and is less sensitive than the Lodestar.
A short version is that to make a camera more sensitive binning is set to allow it to use four pixels as one eg 2x2 binning or even more so 3x3 nine pixels as one pixel.
Binning is where software uses a mathematical routine to average or other calculations, the surrounding pixels to one value. So 2x2 binning means 2 pixels across and 2 pixels vertically are averaged (or whatever algorithim is used) to form one value so it acts like one giant pixel.
3 x3 uses 9 pixels, 4x4 16.
2x2 binning is often used with guiding as it increases the sensitivity of the camera by a factor. That factor would vary with chips but is something like 2X or more.
I often use 2x2 binning on narrowband where there is not a lot of fine detail and I want maximum details on a faint object. You usually would shoot luminance filters 1x1 as you want maximum resolution and colour can be done 2x2 as colour does not have sharp transitions ordinarily and you mainly want the colour to show through and it speeds up acquisition.
Some shoot everything LRGB 1x1 and this is a good approach when you want max resolution like a galaxy shot. Just expose for longer and you can also add the RGB component to the luminance by desaturating the RGB combine and adding it to the luminance to increase the signal.
I have done this and really did not see much of an improvement but every little bit can help.
I was thinking when guiding at 2000mm say, and the pixel size on my guide chip are smaller than my imaging camera, bining the guide camera would avoid false corrections due to the long focal length. Or am I thinking about this the wrong way?
Erik
Guiding (aka PHD) uses the centroid not just the pixel/ size to get more accurate guiding.
The real benefit of binning (for guiding) is you get a larger, more sensitive "pixel"
Ok Ken, thanks. So would there be any benefit in binning the guider to reduce its effective resolution, hence help a little with chasing the seeing? Or am I way off the mark here?
Is there any general relationship between guider pixel size and imager pixel size to go by, or isn't it too important for general imaging stuff?