Thanks Marc for your comment.
The cool thing about PI is the pixel maths has a sufficient number of functions to allow to allow some sophisticated processing.
I've developed a stetching routine that allows fainter detail to be brought out without increasing noise and more importantly not burning out brighter detail or increasing star sizes by an appreciable amount.
Basically the maths behind the stretching is a damped sinusoidal function which leaves the higher pixel values untouched. The function has also been phase shifted not to increase noise or effect very low pixel values.
The new routine is here.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro/Trifidl_clone.jpg
The original here.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~sjastro/Trifidl.jpg
The routine is still a work in process.
Regards
Steven