The Andromeda Galaxy – Oct DSC

[JonH]

I think the contrast can be recovered using some of the HDR functions in ImageJ or with the method Mark sugested.
As for the gradient I'm not sure where to start with that.
I'm going to try improving the colour now, unfortunatly the method I have been using to compress the dynamic range has a side effect of killing the colour and it's an ass to get back!
But I still prefer this one as it shows much more of the outlying detail.