I jumped onto my laptop as I was curious at what settings I had. I didn't take snips of flats or bias as both are the same as the darks.
I used to just use the standard settings that DSS had when I first opened but after some reading I changed all the settings and I've seen an improvement in the final process.
Most of my images come out of DSS like your second picture, one I did on NGC 6188 there was nothing on the screen except for 2 stars but after processing.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=169334
Here's an 80 sec shot I did with a Mak Cas f/11.8 on an Alt-Az mount, don't give up Carlton.