M81

[brrttpaul]

done a few hours last night and played about using PS, I think i,m getting a bit better on the processing side of it

[Dark Horizon]

Valiant effort... 

I could be wrong but it looks like you've altered the white point in levels, if so, don't, as it blows out stars and galaxy centers. Also, use unsharp mask a little more subtle, it'll help in not exacerbating noise already inherent in the image and it'll prevent those extra rings around your bright stars.

Ultimately, collect more data. Aim for 5 - 10 min subs. Don't forget to collect Darks (20 or so taken with your camera in the same setup as for the lights) and Bias frames.... I have a master built from 65. Flats are a bit more problematic to collect, but if you can.....

All the best in your quest for light 

[Knighty2112]

Nice work. Well done!  

[brrttpaul]

thx for the reply and appreciate the advice, what I have been doing lately is following a maxim programme on youtube for stretching, ( basically screen strretch> log and max pixel> then digi developement>user filter then save as tiff manual stretch>linear . these were 300 sec subs and I took a lot  51 in total 

[gnomus]

That certainly sounds like a reasonable amount of data to be getting on with.  The image is quite nice, but it has an overall orangy-brown colour cast to it.  If you could lose this I think it might really sparkle.  I don't know the techniques you are using - I dont have Maxim.  Have you tried just producing a linear stack and doing all the stretching in PS?

[brrttpaul]

no I havnt and dont realy know what im doing with stretching also I have no idea how to set the colour balance really, all I do is look at the RGB in Ps and if they are lined up I take that as its ok

[gnomus]

Don't let that worry you.  Very few folks know what they are doing   I sometimes place an eyedropper tool point onto an area of definite background.  The R,G, and B values should all be the same.  If not, small tweaks to the individual, R, G & B black points can normally even everything up.