stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I can see the improvement , it took several double takes but, it's there. I'll add that and go easy on the stretch instead of over stretching Thanks Marc you did good !

Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England

Your welcome mate.
Gentle, subtle stretches always work best.
Be careful not clip black or white levels

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Marc, I am not sure if you have seen the adjusted image I posted back on January 8 or 9 from the OP's file. If you have, then I am wondering what you thought you have made better in your present submission. I know the center of the galaxy is burned out, but I was trying to get as much info as possible from the picture regarding the dim arms and lanes of the galaxy. I know this does make the bright star in the lower right to also be much larger than it should be.

To me this is always this trade-off--either we over-expose the bright center of the galaxy and any bright stars between us and the galaxy or we try to see the center of the galaxy but really don't get to see much of the arms of the galaxy, if any exist. My contribution errors on the side of the first case, and it seems to me yours does on the side of the later description.

So, I am wondering about your thought processes, or maybe you miissed my first contributioon. --Richard

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I started all over again 4 times pulled ,stretched, tweaked, and tweaked and so far I'm getting closer with yalls help. My workflow that I follow isn't cutting it.

4th pass through processing

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

I love it the way it is!!

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Looks good. BTW, you may want to decide which way you want to show these photos. The first two were turned 180 degrees from this one. --Richard

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

I'm looking for input as to which way it should be displayed , your input is appreciated Richard. thanks

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

For what it's worth, there might be two ways (or more) to answer this. If I am interested in other people being able to take an astrophoto and compare it to others, then positioning the photo as if it were viewed from Earth and looking at it with its sides perpendicular and parallel to the ecliptic makes sense with North being up.

Or if one includes the time and date, then one could do it as if viewed from Eath and posiiotned with respect to the viewer's horizon. Both of these assume one would trun the photo upside down from how it was viewed in the telescope. But take a look at how reputable sources orient it, such as NASA or one of the research telescope sites do it. --Richard

stepping beyond Loc: usa eastcoast

Thank you , splendid answer !