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You got the data there in the 2nd shot. The first one is closer to the mark on colour. It does seem a bit red and that is surprising as your camera isn't modified so it must have good red response.
I don't think Eta is that red overall. It has a bit of bluishness to it.
One way to check how you are going with processing is to select an example of the same image from someone's posted image and then
compare yours to it.
Wodaski's "Zone System" book is probably as good as any out there and fairly easy to understand.
There are also excellent tutorial DVDs. One cheap one that is good is Don Wade from Wade Observatory. I think its only about US$30 and has a lot of data on it and is easy to follow. Adam Block's is also good but more expensive.
Probably the area you need to master first is the use of levels/curves. There is an exact way to use them and it makes all the difference as it is your basic processing tool that is done first after darks and flats etc. It sets the scene for the rest of the processing which hopefully will be minor once the levels/curves are done right. If the scene is not set right then later processing will fail. Wodaski gives a very simple and easy to follow approach to that.
In the case of the 2nd image you probably have boosted the highlights too hard and this gives a blown out look and washed out the colours. You can individually adjust the red, green, blue channels with levels and curves.
Another easy way to get good results is to use Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions. These are great value at about US$30 for I think its about 28 actions.
You click on the action (I usually make a duplicate copy first and run the action on that in case I don't like the result) and viola! Its good for increasing star colour (a common weakness in DSLR images are the stars are often shown as all white when they are not), reducing noise, incresing contrast, reducing star sizes, removing violet halos if your scope is semi-APO etc etc. Well worth it.
So in summary, now you have tracking, focus and image acquisition under control you should consider:
1. Getting Wodaski's "Zone System" book.
2. Download the Noel Carboni Photoshop actions.
3. Consider later on getting "Noise Ninja" which is another very handy tool.
Greg.
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