Thanks all for your constructive comments.
jjjnettie-tried this black point setting in curves, it pushes the histogram way to the black area and the processing cannot recover from it, unless someone can give me a crash course in its correct use?
PeterM - Still having troubles with the f/4 Newt with collimation issues and the dodgy stars from the outcome of exposing with this setup, thought I needed a break from trying to work it out as I have spent too much time trying to work out were the issue lies and not imaging so I thought I'd flip the system and have a holiday!
Here is the link to my woes here....
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=82670
Paul - Would love to post a bigger image as it would be good if you could have a look at it, only if you have time that is. What are my options for getting it too you?
The background gradient is another thing to try and work out, I never used a deep sky filter, or could there be the chances of scattered light? The second lot of images I took were taken when the crescent moon was on the opposite side of the sky...light from this? I will continue to reprocess to try and weed it out.
Paul