Troy - just read your post - dont know if this the way noel does it but . The star selection and removal process is explained pretty well at
http://starizona.com/acb/ccd/software/ps_unsharp.aspx
It is the first few steps in their super unsharp masking process - it just uses the Select ->colour selection tool (click on fairly bright star), fuzziness adjustment to about 150 enough to include all stars, Select->Expand-> I use about 5 pixels, Save Selection (name it), Paste new Layer (Ctrl J), Select -> Load Selection (the one just saved), Filter -> Noise -> dust and scratches (play with setting to get all stars - start at about 6), ok, ctrl D (deselect) and they should be all gone (if they arent click on the layer you saved - im typing this from memory and cant remember if that should be off or on to remove them) - then you can do what you like sharpening etc or whatever then you just turn the layer back on (or off) again and your stars come back hopefully without halos if you unsharp masked.
From memory i think this is pretty close to the procedure. Its getting late. If it doesnt work let me know and i'll fire up PS and correct it tommorrow.
Mark