[[1ponders] (Paul)]

the settings I used are on the first entry in this thread

Of course. I saw that. I ws just checking you did

Polar extinction; yes, meaning that you have missed initial data because some of your capture settings have been set too low. I thought it might have been because you had set the contrast/brightness too low or dark point too high with a histogram somewhere during processing, but it doesn't appear so as your original is very dark on the limbs as well.

Do you have K3CCDTools? If not download V1 and the free key and give that a try. I don't know Amcap at all, but K3 comes with a histogram to assist in judging your gamma, gain and brightness settings. Keeping it around 240 to 250 (and that is pretty bright) seems to work the best for me.You won't get any limb extinction then, I'll let yo know.