Dealing with oversampled frames...

[UlteriorModem]

Just a quick question.

My current setup results in over sampled images of somewhere around .56 as/pixel.

The results are 'fat' stars and soft images.

What are some ways to deal with this? Is binning a viable option?

[aworonow]

Oversampling does not lead to bloated/soft images. Poor focus does, as might high clouds, mist, and maybe even light pollution. If you have good seeing (say 2 arcsec) then you have only 4 pix/2as. That's near Nyquist (around 3.3ish pixels/arcsec of seeing. So it's not even oversampled, really.

[UlteriorModem]

Oversampling will indeed lead to 'bloated' stars. My images are in focus I assure you.

It is somewhat oversampled and it is pretty start difference between ota setups I have used. The 10" RC at a focal length of 2,000mm produces much fatter stars and 'soft' objects.

Here is an example.

NGC3628 pass4 by Tom Whit, on Flickr

I sharpend that quite a bit as evidenced by the ringing artifacts around some of the stars. And it still seems like it is missing some finer details due to oversampling.