No one size fits all

[Guest]

I quite often use 3 programs to process images, one to stack, one to split colour channels and one to boost contrast and apply colour tints.

 

Some examples are here and a typical example is the one done today (you need to scroll down to the bottom).

 

http://sungazer127mak.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/march-2013.html

 

I used Microsoft ICE to stack the images (sometimes I use Registax 5/6), Paintshop Pro to split the channels and GIMP to sort the contrast out. I honestly believe that I can't get much better than this unless I stitch multiple webcam images, which means several imaging runs at the time of a full(ish) moon but I sometimes do for a crescent moon.