[Rex]

Hi Rex,

Congrats on the new setup!
You won't regret the 8" f/4, they are a powerful tool in AP.

Most of the double diffraction spikes is from slight twisting in the veins.
You can straighten them out easily with your fingers, slight pressure is all that's needed.
It's usually easy to see which are twisted just by eye.

Other double diffraction spikes can be from very close doubles.

Cheers,

Justin.

Thanks Justin. It will be a learning curve with the new rig for sure, but I am pretty happy with the outcome for a first light. Thanks for the tip about the spider veins. I will check it out and hopefully fix it.

Nice image, silky smooth looking.

Thanks Chris, my processing skills were never really up to scratch and its been a while so to be honest, I wasn't sure if the smoothness was good or bad. I figured the only way to get better was to post it and get some pointers.

Nice image, keep up the good work. Good job on preserving the core (not that out of practice), don't forget to blend the colour of the core image to back ground image so it does not look as washed out.
Mine are usually all little more purple than the main image with my modded camera so I have to take a little saturation out, you may have to add a little to bring a little more colour to it before flattening the layers.

Thanks Carl. I will try what you have suggested. This is the first time I have tried to blend different exposures so any help is appreciated.