A single 5-minute exposure from last night.
I had set up to take several hours of data, however, I was defeated by really bad dew. The whole rig was dripping wet.
So, working with just the one image, the goal was to bring the Milky Way to prominence.
In order to do this, I added some contrast in varying degrees to blacken the background sky, slightly increased the contrast in the Milky Way in relation to the background sky, and eroded the smaller stars that dominated the scene.
I really, really wish I had many hours of data on this to work with. I can't wait until next new Moon.
There was a bit of airglow around last night, as evidenced by the greenish tinges here and there.
Still, I'm quite happy with the natural appearance.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
300s f/5.0 at 17.0mm iso1600
Slightly larger version available
here.
H