Thanks everyone for your positive comments
Rapideye, the bright stars in most of my photos seem to have flares towards one side of the diffraction spikes.. as I understand this is caused by imperfections in my optics..i'm still working on it..
fringe_dweller, the 350D is unmodded..and i'm quite happy with it too
the centre of the nebula isn't perfect, no special processing done on it but i'm hoping to come back to it using the technique seeker refered to (Thanks for the link seeker!)
i waited for 4-5 hours in the freezing cold the night after to get shots of the neighboring nebulas but the clouds never went away...
