Both images have their pluses Paul but I think the latest is pushed a bit too much so is a bit noisey (not that I am shy to a little noise
), the first was softer and more natural looking... so what if you add the two images together, round up the stars a tad, increase the star saturation a little, rescale and remove the noise granulation from the lower arm....
Of course I am sure you would rather have the stars round from the start
Just a little bit of fiddling fun, your work is excellent so far
Mike