[RCC] Andromeda Galaxy - M31 Requests for constructive critique · Seth Chandler · ... · 3 · 210 · 1

This is my 2nd attempt at my 1st deep space object, the Andromeda Galaxy.  This was shot from my driveway in a Bortle 6 area.
After collecting a total of 9 hours of data, and climbing the steep mountain that is learning PixInsight, I have this picture for your consideration.

I can already tell that the terrestrial lens that I was using (Canon EF 70-200mm IS L II) adds quite a bit of coma to the stars, even after using pretty aggressive deconvolution tools.

Appreciate any thoughts about my first submission for critique.  Thanks!

For a second shot this is pretty damn good, no major complaints. The star shapes are a bit suspect but you knew about that already. Some things to improve on:

The colourcalibration/palette could be improved a bit, at the moment there is this pinkish-beige veil that covers most of the galaxy, with a bit too much purple and blue around the edges. M31 has really faint colours, and you need a well balanced palette before you start applying saturation, or some single hue starts to overpower the image.

How does SPCC work for the image? It usually does a very good job of colour calibration, although not sure it likes your starshapes and is able to get enough samples. Worth a try though.

Looks like you have also tried to crush the background to black, but there is still a hint of a gradient that is left behind. You might want to have another go at background extraction with DBE. You can do it multiple times if it doesn't get rid of the gradient in one go. Generally i would say fewer samplers are better than more samplers. Less than 10 usually works out just fine, and sometimes as few as 4 - one in each corner.