Bubble Nebula at two resolutions

[BlueAstra]

The native resolution of my kit is 0.76 arcsec/pixel. If I bin at 2x2 this becomes 1.52 arcsec/pixel. I've often wondered if I'm losing out on resolution if I image at 2x2, however, I think the guidelines often given are to image at 1-2 arcsec/pixel for typical seeing in the UK. So I thought I'd try an experiment at both resolutions. I took two images of the Bubble Nebula, both 11 x 5 min S2/Ha/O3, unfortunately on two different nights last weekend but conditions were similar. The first image is binned 2x2 giving 1.52 arcsec/pixel, the second native at 0.76 arcsec/pixel, usual duff processing in PS. I didn't think to store the processing steps for the first image so the second image has the same steps but not carried out in an identical fashion. The first image is brighter, given the bigger 'pixels', and it doesn't look significantly poorer in resolution compared with the second image. So for NB I think I will continue to use 2x2 for S2/Ha/O3 filters.

What happens with LRGB though? Normally you would take L (1x1) and RGB (2x2). Should I now use L (2x2) RGB (4x4) ? I'll give that a try next!

 

[Ant]

Certainly on my screen image one is MUCH better, the unbinned image looks to be processed to far - that stars don't look anywhere near as good as the first binned image.

I know which I would prefer to achieve. 

Ant

[BlueAstra]

Probably trying to pull too much from not enough subs for image two. The final histograms were spikey. I tried to achieve similar brightness, but 11x 5 min is not enough for 1x1 in this comparison.