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Gday Frank
I dont know if there is a general answer to the question on binning nebs or darl / light skies but I can tell you my experiences.
If you want resolution dont bin. Remember you are reducing the resolution of your camera by a factor of 4 when you 2 x 2 bin. Your 10 megapixel CCD immediately becomes 2.5 megapixels with the pixel size 4 times the priginal size - all equals lower resolution. This starts to get into pixel size ratio or scale as well but I will elave that for more astrophotographically eloquent people than me.
I agree with Roger in that if you want more nebulosity or galaxy detail increase then exposure amd take a heap of em. ( iam not going to get into the difference between 100 x 10 second subs versus 10 x 100 second subs but try it - more fainter neb or galactic data will be in the 100 second images but you need to take a heap to account for the signal to noise problems)
I use my camera for astrophotography and have just started supernova hunting with it around the moon time of the month. I 2 x 2 bin my s.n. images for shorter exposures and faster downloads because I am not trying for 'nice' pictures to stick on a wall. However when i am taking 'nice' astrophotos I usually image at 1x1.
I have 2x2 binned Ha, SII, OII channels for colour that sit under a Luminosity channel taken at 1x1 for detail. There is a bit more mucking around with this but narrowband has so much mucking arund a bit more doesnt matter.
So my advice would be if you are just trying to capture a neb from home or if you taking quick framing snaps anywhere then bin them however if you are trying to resolve the pillars in the Eagle Neb or capture detail in the dust lane in that faint galaxy - dont bin but take more and longer exposures at 1 x 1. Others may disagree but I am getting some results following this approach.
Mark
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