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How did you go about doing the LHaRGB layering Paul?
I generally use clip masks to combine RGB channels from the 3 registered images, then take the red channel into a separate window in PS, layer in the Ha registered frame, set it to screen blending mode, and set the opacity to anywhere between 45~75%, higher sometimes for predominantly red targets.. Blending the Ha with the red will ensure better saturation of reds in the final image... The stronger you make the Ha (higher % opacity) the less stars will show through in that channel. If you were to blend the Ha into your L channel the same way as mentioned before, but say, 30~40% opacity, that would numb out the stars a fair bit..
You could remove them all together by iterative use of the dust and scratches tool in photoshop... Set radius to 12 and set Threshold to 50-120, by looking at the enlarged image, set the threshold so that the center of the brighter stars disappears but image stays sharp.
Next, lower radius two points to 10 and set threshold to 30-80. Follow the image quality and details when setting your threshold, too high, you won't properly remove the star, too low and you'll remove detail from the image highlights. Repeat several iterations with incrementally lower values, the more iterations the better. In the last iteration, radius should be 1 and the Threshold between 3-10. If there are leftovers from brighter stars, use the clone tool or spot healing brush to clean them up.
Sometimes this can leave a funny looking affect in the darker zones of the image, by creating a duplicate layer of the starless image, and applying a 4px gaussin blur, or a slight median filter to the duplicate, use a hide all mask to only blend in the smoothed background, but not the blurred details in the nebula, you can end up with a very smooth, inky black background with no stars and retain a very sharp, star free image of the nebula...
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