Here's a second try, with a month or so of additional learning:
http://www.pbase.com/skybox/image/159811685This was the first attempt:
http://www.pbase.com/skybox/image/160104983There are a few key differences between this version and the original. In the new version, I did deconvolution using a sampled PSF and MLT noise reduction while still linear, following Juan's tutorial on M81 and M82. That gave much better results than the post-stretching deconv I did before, although here I did do a bit more deconvolution post-stretching. I find it hard to tell when I've done enough until the stretching is done. I also did a masked stretch, which seemed to give better color saturation. Post-stretching, I used a touch of LHE for contrast. I used a tiny bit of SCNR on the nebula, which was more green in this processing than the first effort, and I ran SCNR at full strength on the stars. I'm finally getting the hang of using PixelMath to create just the right mask for each step.
Thanks to everyone for their help.
Kevin
PS: A question about Color Calibration. At least in this image, I found that it faded the highlights. It's almost as if the luminance information is not being preserved. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
