The equipment I used was a Tak FSQ106 on an EQ6 mount guided with an Orion short tube package.
The image is from 22 shots of 120seconds and 640iso. Stacked using deep sky stacker.
Processing was all done in Photoshop CS5 using levels and curves. Then using Match Colour, Reduce Noise and Unsharpen Mask.
I didn't do any colour balancing in DSS (basically because I have no idea what I'm doing there and seemingly always end up breaking the image).
After stacking I got that heavily whited out image, is that normal? I have seen some examples where there is hardly anything visible after stacking and they successfully use levels and curves to make stunning images, have I over exposed? If so how can you tell the correct iso/exposure balance? What am I looking for in the image that will tell me when I have it right?
Or is all the data there and I just need to improve my ability to process the image? Will purchasing Pixinsight or MaximDL or third-party Photoshop add ons help? Which Photoshop add-ons are best?
Sorry, I have so many questions about all this I could go on for pages
Thanks