yep thanks Al, my work flow was to capture as much faint stuff as possible and blend into a composite with shorter length subs for the cores. which I still may do Melbourne weather permitting!
I'm still finding my feet with exposure length with my current system particularly struggling with light pollution etc. I have been taking subs way too long and fogging out the background too much (something I hadn't noticed on the subs at the time). this night was much closer to the mark for my sky conditions. I will be getting a light pollution filter in the next few weeks (sold out) and i'll have to start experimenting again on sub length.
cheers for the tips
