I've always struggled with broadband imaging under city skies. I tried numerous techniques and hardware, but all my data and images turned out to be kinda garbage. Whether that was due to a lack of skill operating my rig or processing is anyone's guess at this point. This image, though...I'm proud of. Easily my best galaxy image to date, I used no LP filters and didn't travel to a dark sky site. Just the same old back yard under Denver's brightly lit sky. What I feel made the biggest difference was three-fold:
1. I took a larger number of shorter subs.
2. I used a higher f/ ratio. My last attempt on this object was at f/5.6 through a reducer. This time I stayed with my scope's native f/7.5.
3. Finally stopped trying to adapt my narrowband workflow to broadband. Learned to use ColorCalibration, BackgroundNeutralization, and a handful of other PixInsight modules I've never bothered to learn until now. Wow, I was an idiot for not learning them sooner!
I really love this one, even if no one else does.
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