Face on spiral bigger than M101...

[swag72]

I like that last version the most..... For me it's a colour thing. While i accept that it's a murky yellow red for a reason, i just prefer it slightly bluer. I think the nail has been hit on the head in the last image

[ollypenrice]

18 minutes ago, johnrt said:

Ha ha! When the rains and clouds finally part this is also the subject of my current imaging project. I need to collect some more RGB before I release into to the wild. I'm pleased to see that my image has gone about as deep as yours, but it took me crunching about 16 or 17 hours of luminance alone to get there!  

Happy New year by the way.

See sense, man: get out while you're ahead. Repent! Get thee behind me, IC342!!!

lly

 

[ollypenrice]

12 minutes ago, swag72 said:

I like that last version the most..... For me it's a colour thing. While i accept that it's a murky yellow red for a reason, i just prefer it slightly bluer. I think the nail has been hit on the head in the last image

Oh bless you, dear Sara! For me the first one had too much of the William Blake about it: Bring me my bow of burning gold!  Like a well polished collection of horse brasses gleaming in the firelight it had a certain antiquarian charm but it always looked like a global colour caste to me.

I'm never going to touch it again. (Looking this phrase up the in the Astrophotographer's Dictionary it translates I probably won't touch it again before this evening.)

Olly

[Filroden]

+1 for the second version too. It’s retained the wonderful dusty look of a galaxy hiding behind our own and given the stars more balance. I was surprised that the stars in the first version all looked dusty too, with no discernible reason. In the second version they look more like what I’d expect for a star field just off the central Milky Way.

[newbie alert]

Beautiful image Olly...wonderful star colour..but unfortunately  be a blind target for the majority of us...still worth a try thou I suppose..got to be in it to get disappointed!!