M81 + M82 from backyard

[skysurfer]

Yesterday night I took this image of the two galaxies in Ursa Major using the Canon eos 7 in prime focus of the Televue Genesis (100mm f/5).
7 frames 3 darks 2 minutes each iso 1600, stacked with DSS.
These belong to the most beautiful galaxies in the sky.

http://www.northsouthsky.com/skypics4/large/m81-82.jpg

[Ross G]

A nice, wide galaxy photo.

Looks really good.

Ross.

[Stevec35]

Not bad at all. I think you would capture a lot more colour with longer exposures although M81 is a fairly bland galaxy.

Cheers

Steve

[skysurfer]

Yes but longer exposures result in overexposure of the cores of both galaxies. And as I shoot RAW at full res (5184x3456) I am not bothered by 8 bit or other JPG artefact / software tricks.
I processed it with DSS. Or did I something wrong with processing ?

EDIT: I tried photoshopping the final TIFF (18MP) again with increasing the saturation to get more color, but the sky background also has a reddish hue.

[Stevec35]

I doubt whether you are doing anything wrong. It sounds as if the main problem is light pollution.