Leo Triplet with tidal stream

[rjbokleman]

Last time I heard of Lums it was a restaurant!

Frank, too funny. You're not alone on that one! I think it was LUM'S [ https://www.facebook.com/LUMS-Restauran ... 970292538/ ] though, not Lums.

Seriously though, you remember helping me with my DSLR and Nebulosity awhile back (Thank You!). This is just a linear (or perhaps exponential) mathmatical progression from those beginnings. It's also a stark reminder of why I started with a DSLR and not a CCD/CMOS and Filter Wheel at the beginning.

It's a fascinating topic with no end to the discovery and learning. The fun part is, that each of us gets to decide how 'deep' we want to go and be comfortable with that decision. If a hobby isn't 'Fun' anymore, then that usually means we carried it too far.

From my point of view, I'll be learning things about this part of the hobby for the rest of my life. Learning things from books and especially other people makes this very enjoyable.

[rjbokleman]

Andy,

One problem I have with LRGB is that it is always difficult to balance the SNR of the Lum vs the RGB. I tend to get much more Lum data, hence nice low SNR master Lum versus noisier RGB masters.

At first blush, this seems to be a direct result of the RGB 2x2 BIN against the L at 1x1? If so, the solution would seem to be either "bitting the bullet" and doing 1x1 on RGB, or as has been suggested to reduce imaging time simply do RGB and as suggested a Synthetic L which would make the SNR the same.

By comparison though I wonder if the 1x1 would simply give you better SNR overall.

For me, at present and just getting into the LRGB, I'll probably opt to keep the RGB at 1x1, but as you know that's a big time investment.