M33, first attempt

I attempted to draw out the faint whisps of M33 this weekend at Harestua Solar observatory. The night looked like it was a dud. The clouds rolled in. But just as suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared. And the air was clear and sharp. So I decided to try my luck at M33. Have tried this before, but all my attempts have been just smudgy and strange. So this time I tried 1.5 hours of exposure. This first attempt at processing it, brought out a lot of details. More than I have done before. There is a strange colour cast in the image that I haven't been able to rid myself of, or found the source of. But I am happy with this first attempt. It was also my first night with a new mount. The Celestron Advanced VX. I struggeled at first to get it to polar align properly until I realized my tandem dovetail bar (for telescope and autoguider) had quite a flex on the telescope side due to a loose bolt. I tightened the bolt, and the polar alignment worked perfectly. Since I had spent 2 hours struggling to get the polar alignment correct, I didn't even want to attempt autoguiding when the clouds rolled away. So I settled for short exposures. The polar alignment wasn't perfect. I should probably have performed the routine twice or three times to get it more accurately aligned, but with the imminent threat of new clouds, I was eager to get going. So therefore only 1.5 hours of exposures in total. But it was enough for the galaxy to stand out better than I have managed before. Click on the image for a full version.
Techincal details : Pentax K5 camera, ISO 1600, 120x45 seconds. Teleskop-Service 80mm triplet APO w/ Williams Optics field flattener. Celestron Advanced VX mount (virgin run). Unguided. Processing in DSS and PS.