I use in-camera noise reduction 'cause I dislike what DSS spits out. Just me I guess.
It was a focus issue, as I verified in my shots of the Tarantula Nebula from last night too. Thought it was spot on, but alas, not quite! I think I "bumped" the electric focuser button once when shifting between PHD and my camera controller - fat fingers on a laptop touchpad.
I do have alibrary of darks and flats, as I said: "I had Canon long exposure noise reduction on, but also ran it through DSS with flats and darks (master files of same ISO I had)." Iwill typically tweak a RAW in PS first, then throw it into DSS for some final pixel treatment.
I think that StarTools also bloated the stars a bit.
All in all, like I said, the shot is a DRAWN OUT O...K..not good, but not BAD either. 1 shot on a funny night, and I HAD to show SOMETHING for the time expended!
