Do I need to BIN my flats for RGB?

[earth titan]

As the title suggests.

I took LRGB flats last night for the first time. Popped them into DSS and as they were different sizes, it refused to stack them.

I know I can resize them and then do it, but the questions is .....

Should flats be binned to make them the same size as the lights?

[swag72]

When I asked this last year, having tried binning for the first and last time, I was told that it was best to take the flats at the same bin as the lights. So I had 1x1 bin Luminance lights and flats and 2x2 bin RGB's lights and flats. Calibrated them all, then resized the RGB to match the luminance after calibration.

[earth titan]

And i presume a set of binned bias frames as well.

[earth titan]

Okay so reading around the topic, it looks like I need to do the following:

• Take about 20 flats for each colour (binned 2x2)
  
• Take about 20 flats for luminaince (binned 1x1)
  
• Take about 20 bias frames at 1x1
  
• Take about 20 bias frames at 2x2
  

Calibrate the LRGB with the relevant flats and bias frames.

Does this make sense.

I tried last night with all the flats and bias frames at 1x1 and DSS kicked them out (except the luminaince layer).

[rfdesigner]

I take different flats for L & R & G & B. After all there could be different dust on each filter.

I thus have the opportunity to take flats at the same resolution as the lights, thus meaning my calibration frames are all identical to the lights except for all the pretty stars!.. a-b = just pretty stars.

I therefore have:

Lums at 1x1 300s

Darks at 1x1 300s

Flats at 1x1 through the L at 30s

Bias at 1x1 30s

RG&B at 3x3 100s

Darks at 3x3 100s

Flats at 3x3 for each of RG&B at 10s

bias at 3x3 10s

taking the 3x3 darks flats and bias doesn't take that much time.

Derek.... still learning my way through LRGB

[earth titan]

Thats pretty much what `i ended up with in the end, except I did my colour at 2x2 binned.

I tried it all out on a very faint fuzzy (just for a challenge) and came up with this:

7 sets in total (so not a lot) of NGS2903

A bit blue and a bit noisy. What I really need is nore data - i.e. clear skies !!!