M33 in October and November

[rodmichael]

I completed image capture of M33 (the Triangulum Galaxy) this morning at about 3AM. I began on 24 October and was substantially interrupted by the moon for a couple of weeks. I imaged in RGB and Ha and extracted a luminance image from the integrated RGB image using PixInsight.
 
The image here is an LRGB image (no Ha, yet) integrated from 64 6-minute exposures (R=29, G=20, B=15). All pre- and post-processing in PixInsight.

[avastro]

Hi,
It's a nice image, for my taste the background is a bit clipped( too black).
Good effort.

Antoine

[RickS]

Nice work, Rod.  Maybe wind back the red a little to get rid of the pink cast?

[rodmichael]

I have reprocessed (pre- and post-) my data using my evolving "skills" with PixInsight. As suggested, without particularly aiming to do so, the pink cast seems to have resolved/evolved to a more bluish one. The background is not as inky black as has been my want in the past.

My chief aim, as I have sought to improve my processing skills, has been to improve my workflow and make my work more reproducible. In the past, reproducibility has been a chief weakness, I have felt, probably reflecting a shortcoming in my understanding of PI processes.

In this version of M33, I have used more of my data that I captured of this object, i.e., subframe count has gone up to 29 each of subframes R, G, & B, 6-minutes each subframe. I used a "synthetic" luminance frame instead of a real luminance frame.

I like this one better than my first submission.

[rodmichael]

On a bit of a whim, I tried a "touch" of HDR Multiscale Transformation (8 layers, 1 iteration) to see if I might enhance some detail in the image. I think it has had a beneficial effect on the image, reducing core brightness, enhancing visibility of dark nebulae in the core, and a greater sense of discreteness of the spiral arms of the galaxy.