M106 (with blobby stars)

[rubecula]

This is M106 taken earlier this year, 7hrs 20min, made up of 25 x 600s Lum, 12 x 300s R and G, and 14 x 300s B taken with an 8" Celestron Edge HD with 0.7 focal reducer.  SGP for image capture, PHD2 tracking, stacking and LP removal in APP with final processing in PS.

Made a couple of attempts to do the complete development in APP but results were disappointing hence recourse to PS.  Despite using Noel Carboni's reduce stars size they still look too fat to me.  Is this a function of the focal length (1400mm), poor focusing or poor image processing?  I tried Starnet++ but the result looked awful.  The background also looks too black but not sure how to cure that.  Anyhow, here it is:

 

Thanks

Edited June 9, 2020 by rubecula
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[MarkAR]

5 hours ago, rubecula said:

The background also looks too black

Nice image, overly dark background is usually a sign of clipping the black point in a histogram or caves stretch.

[astroman001]

Poor seeing can cause bloated stars, not much you can do about that.

Peter

[MartinB]

Some great detail in there Robin.  Looks a little magenta on my monitor.