processing help on broom

[assouptro]

Here is one of my finest images to date.

Question is how do I make the background more natural? The image is a mixture of 300s and 480s exposures over 2 nights, flats, darks and bias removed, combined and stacked using dss and final image tweaked in photoshop. Camera modded 350d Scope revelation 80 sitting on a meade 12" lx200 gps with focal reducer and meade dsi pro guiding using phd.

I am also using a 2" lp filter,( but not an expensive one) as I live on the outskirts of a small city and have neighbours who feel it necessary to have lights on dawn to dusk sensors:mad:????

This really is one of the steepest learning curves:icon_confused:

[Cloudwatcher]

I don't normally do nebula but if that rather good image were mine I'd be inclined to do a quick fix on the background with a crop and individual layers for the stars and 'space' leaving the 'broom' as is. Darkening and desaturating the background makes the 'broom' stand out ...... perhaps a bit too much.

[assouptro]

Thanks for the tip CW. I'm not sure how to crop such an awkward shape, I guess I need more practice with photoshop.

If you have any tips of where to start that would be useful