This is just such an iconic target it is hard to pass up imaging every year. I captured about 5 hours of data a couple of nights ago and then combined it with data from last year's image.
Last year image was processed with APP and Photoshop. This ended up being an interesting processing project. From last year I had individual stacked FIT files in HaLRGB and then I added LRGB and OIII this year. First thing I noticed was the massive difference in light pollution this year in my images. Last year I must of had my neighbors turn their outside lights off. This year the neighbor to the right and across the street had really bright lights shinning in drive way. I first tried stacking the 10 individual raw fits files from the 2 nights, but I could not blend their backgrounds in either APP or Pixinsight due to the difference in light pollution. So next I used APP's light pollution tool to remove as much light pollution as I could from all 10 images. Then I re-stacked the 10 images and combined the images in APP (using APP's RBGHOO template).
I imported the combined FIT file and Lum file into PI. In PI; applied Dynamic Crop, DBE, BlurX and NoiseX. Stretched both files with the Hyperbolic Generalize Stretch. Used SCNR to remove green. Normally I use StarX to remove the stars and make a unscreened star image so I can stretch the starless image and recombine the stars. However, no matter many times I tried or how I stretched the stars, I could never get the combined image to look right. So I ended up stretching the image with the stars and then added the Lum using the LRGB combine in PI. I should have used a star mask, but did not, so the stars are a little bloated.
Anyway I think this image looks a little better than last year, a little more detail, especially if you zoom in and compare, but you can be the judge, see link below:
https://www.astrobin.com/bqluej/C/
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