The ESO image is a total 31 hr exposure taken through various filters.
Whereas we amateurs use LRGB exposures for galaxy images, the setup is somewhat different for the professional.
The colour data for the Carina Dwarf is a composition of V (visual), U(ultraviolet), B (blue) and I (infrared) filters.
Instead of messing around trying to produce a colour image with a system I have absolutely no experience with I decided to stack the V, U, B and I data to make a luminance image.
The processing involved successive iterations of the pixel mapping routine while making sure the histogram was not clipped but keeping the black point as near as possible to the base of the histogram.
The objective is being able to recognize structures which have a surface brightness of around 30 Vmag per square arcsecond.
To put this into perspective this is over 1000 times fainter than the naturally occurring skyglow from the darkest sites on Earth.
It is why it is so important that noise is kept to an absolute minimum.
For me the image looks more like a random starfield, I'm sure Robert with his keen eye for detail might see something different.
I strongly recommend you look at the higher resolution image.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro..._dwarf_ESO.jpg
A lot of detail is lost in the attachment.
The resolution is superb, the individual stars in the Dwarf are nicely resolved and makes my image by comparison look more like a smudge.
The image has been sent back to ESO for comments.
Regards
Steven