Orion Widefield

[1074j]

That is a nice result with a DSLR as you got lots of faint details. I imaged just about the same area this winter too. However, my camera was a Atik monochrome and imaged with RGB and H-a. I also layered two sets of exposures as M42 is such a HDR object. I didn't really process (or capture!) much of the faint stuff. I don't like the diffraction pattern from the blades in the lens so I use rings to stop down when needed. This makes it way easier to "heal" the stars, or like I did in this image, remove all bright stars, then layer a slightly stretched version back into the final image. Like you, I'm using Startools for the majority of post processing.
Lex

http://www.astrobin.com/full/75494/C/

[Rowland]

I'm not keen on the iris spikes either. This was a test image for a newly finished cooling system and regretfully, in some ways, didn't bother with a front aperture mask. I like stars, and, lots of them, so Heal doesn't get a lot of use.