chicken neb 18 x 360 secs @800 iso plus darks, flats, bias and flat darks..... not that i reckon the last 2 make a difference but the program allows it.
I have only applied some non linear stretches and colour enhancements to this image i held back on the sharpening as i liked the softer look whereas with galaxies it needs a bit.
m83 12 x 360 secs @ 800 iso a bit more processing including decon, curves a bit of tinkering in levels, again colour tweaking and a bit of SCM but with a lower value as theres more of a sprinkling of stars over the galaxy and trying not to halo the stars with dark rings and at the same time bring out the inner dust lanes of the galaxy, i find three particular stretches usefull to play with for certain details of course setting the parameters is trial and error at this stage.
m104 only 180 sec exposures to try not to burn out the core as its a bright galaxy, its fairly monochromatic so not much in the colour dept. this galaxy needs lots of FL i reckon that plus a ccd chip shot in lum plus AO would give it a good serve.... out of my leauge at the moment.
Theres more to the processing but im keeping a few ideas to myself, all i can say is experiment, try the unusual it just might work.
one point of note not discussed is the temp these images were shot at. here in Vic and particularly here it can get nice and cool at night, if youre using a digital camera they work better the cooler, i dont bother shooting if its above 20 deg celcius. and the rate the temp drops can play havoc with your darks and getting a smooth result, so a cool stable night with good seeing mixed with lots of exposures sets you well ahead of the pack.
matty, ric ,eric, RB, Mike(sid), thanks for looking and your comments.
marcus, gary and ice.... hope the above meets what you wanted for details
bert..... Aperture gets the results, its an unbeatable fact. Lots of cubes lots of grunt. yeeeha.

just costs a lot to run
i think ive covered everyone............. bye for now.