[Rex]

Originally Posted by lazjen

I've probably got no advice for you, but I like the image.

By controlling the stars, you mean not overexposing them? If so, maybe you could take some shorter exposures for the stars and process them into the longer exposures?

Thanks Chris. Yeah kind of mean overexposure, although I think the problem comes more when I stretch the data, they tend to get really bright and overwhelm the nebula. I have tried star masks etc while stretching but havent tried the HDR approach yet. Thanks for the tip', I'll give it a try and play around to see what I can do.

Originally Posted by Slawomir

Nice image and well stitched together

It looks clipped a tiny bit on the black end. I think your stars are pretty good. Perhaps I would try combining linear starless lights for the RGB image to reduce colour halos around stars. There is also deconvolution, but I am yet to learn properly how it works.

You certainly have good data, so several revisions over time will allow for making the most out of the data

Thanks Slawomir. Yeah it is a fraction clipped on the second version (on astrobin), The first version seemed a little flat so I clipped it a little more. I was trying to get a little more contrast in and looks like I went a tad too far. Thanks for the tips re the stars, I hear you about deconvolution. I have actually used it on this image but I am still trying to work out the settings as I can never get the stars right without overdoing the nebula. I usually can only get about 10 iterations even with varying settings without getting artifacts. Anyway I will work it out eventually. Thanks again for the feedback.

Originally Posted by DJT

Looking good Rex, lots of subtle tones in there.

Thanks David. I feel I am improving, although it's hard to tell for sure as the seeing is pretty bad this year up this way.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Wow! That's tops Rex! Well done.

Thanks Marc, I'm just glad to get some light on the chip.

Originally Posted by RickS

Nicely stitched, Rex. Bloated stars are always a challenge. You can control them partly during stretching, e.g. with MaskedStretch in PixInsight, and you can shrink them in a variety of ways (deconvolution as suggested by Slawomir, or PI's MorphologicalTransformation.) Chris's suggestion of HDR techniques is worth trying too. There's no single magic bullet but several techniques worth trying... possibly even combinations of them.

Cheers,
Rick.

Thanks Rick for the comment and pointers. I actually masked the stars manually, did a half stretch then removed the mask and finished it off when I did this one. I also used the Morph transform on it as well and some decon. I think it will just come down to practice makes perfect. There is so many different settings with all the techniques that it is hard to find the time to play around and see what each setting actually does. But steady steady I am getting an understanding of some things and I do feel I am improving, so that's always a positive. Thanks again for the feedback.

Originally Posted by jase

Getting adventurous with the mosaic Rex! Kudos for giving it a go. Some good feedback has already been provided. I like the composition. Now you've cut your teeth, perhaps add a few more mosaic panels.

Thanks Jase. I am actually doing another mosaic project at the moment, but I will probably come back to this one next new moon and get at least one more panel up the right hand side.