Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut
I admire your persistance Ivo, good work, youve got me thinking more now, Ill look into this further. Cant help thinking though that just stacking large numbers of (sharpish) subs will get the same result without loosing resolution. Im a bit like Marc, would like to see the results without the bother of doing it myself 1st up.
I havent heard of anyone else bothering with software binning, I must say.
Thanks for your effort and time on this Ivo.
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Thanks Fred! You're right ofcourse - more subs is definitely the way to go. And no matter how clever your processing, you can't beat more and better quality data!
This would make the whole discussion rather academic, were it not for my situation where my equipment is 'basic' (to put it mildly), light pollution is very high (inner Melbourne) and all I have at my disposal is cheap processing power, the oversized CCD of a hacked $90 consumer digital compact camera and my 'mad coding skillz'
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My limitations are by choice and some would (rightfully) say I am indeed mad. However, I absolutely love the challenges these limitations pose. The old adage "necessity is the mother of invention" rings very true in my case. Through writing software (and basic understanding of optics), I have overcome the chromatic aberration of my cheap first eyepieces, overcame the lightpollution in my backyard, put the cheap (but big) CCD in the camera to good use, now have a debayering routine that better suits my astrophotography needs, and can now auto guide my scope via my $10 homebrew interface.
I love how cheap digital compact cameras & webcams, even cheaper CPU cycles and free Open Source Software have put astrophotography within reach of the ordinary sidewalk astronomer (i.e me). Software is absolutely essential in order to capitalize on the low cost of these commodities - it's what ties it all together and repurposes it for astrophotography.
With my huge, but lesser quality, uncooled CCD, I imagine my processing chain looks totally different from yours. I got resolution in spades, but am drowning in noise and fuzz. I *need* things like software binning, and have to use every trick I know to get rid of noise and recover precious signal.
It is my hope that more enthusiasts on a shoestring budget will follow suit, recognize the potential of off-the-shelf hardware and use my tools (or contribute their own). Hopefully you'll see quite a few more people bothering with software binning then!
