Undersampling (DSLR)

[Iem1]

Hey guys,

I have been doing a little research into astrophotography and how to improve the quality of images I capture, primarily based around suggestions and information already gained from the helpful folk here, the advice has been invaluable!

I came across information on oversampling/undersampling.

To cut a long story short, my WO Z73 together with my Astro modded Canon 600D scored a arcsec/pixel = 2.063, which means the imaging combination is ever so slightly undersampling. A score of between 1-2 being noted as ideal. 

I was just curious as to whether or not this score is of any concern/importance in anyway, or if its a pretty negligible factor for a newbie like myself who is just getting started.

Cheers guys

[The Lazy Astronomer]

13 minutes ago, Iem1 said:

Hey guys,

I have been doing a little research into astrophotography and how to improve the quality of images I capture, primarily based around suggestions and information already gained from the helpful folk here, the advice has been invaluable!

I came across information on oversampling/undersampling.

To cut a long story short, my WO Z73 together with my Astro modded Canon 600D scored a arcsec/pixel = 2.063, which means the imaging combination is ever so slightly undersampling. A score of between 1-2 being noted as ideal. 

I was just curious as to whether or not this score is of any concern/importance in anyway, or if its a pretty negligible factor for a newbie like myself who is just getting started.

Cheers guys

2.1"/px is a pretty good sampling rate actually - take the recommendation with a pinch of salt as your maximum resolution (in "/px) is limited by the sky conditions, which sadly for us in the UK (assuming you're in the UK) will rarely support much better than that anyway.*

*Note: this statement applies to 'traditional' long-exposure deep sky imaging. The rules change a bit for short-exposure lucky imaging.

[wimvb]

40 minutes ago, Iem1 said:

pretty negligible factor for a newbie like myself who is just getting started.

Nothing to worry about until you get more experienced. There are so many oter things to worry about when starting out, and sampling is way down the list. Better concentrate on focus, framing, tracking (guiding), exposure and processing first.

[Iem1]

Thanks for the response guys

yeah, UK based...Still waiting on longer/darker nights to really get a good few hours of data in during a single session.

Lucky enough to live very close to the Brecon Beacons national park in Wales, which is considered a fairly dark sky. So shooting without filters in a Bortle 3-4 sky, at its darkest at the moment I can just barely make out a sort of hue from the milky way, and I am pretty sure I can actually see the pleiades with the naked eye (if you don't look directly at it lol) even when it's pretty low in the sky, which is pretty cool.

I am quickly learning that while using a simple Sky guider pro without guiding, a lot of things have to be absouletly on point to contribute to a nice clean image. Hopefully grab my first decent quality image soon, that isn't hampered by dew/focus/moonlight issues

Edited August 2, 2021 by Iem1