Star Trails with a D3000?

[Maooose]

How do you do star trail pictures with the Nikon D3000? Is it possible to take those kinds of pictures with a D3000 with just the kit lens? I got my D3000 about a month ago and love it but I have only been able to figure out how to get the shutter to stay open for 30sec. I know for star trails you have to be able to keep the shutter open for like an hour, right? So, how do set the D3000 to keep the shutter open as long as needed and not set on a preprogrammed amount of time? Hope that makes sense.

Also, I went out the other night at like 2AM to watch the meteor shower that was supposed to be happening and thought I'd try taking a few pics of the night sky while out there. The camera kept saying that the subject was too dark. Can you give me an idea of what types of setting I should be using to get night sky shots?

Thanks for the help!

[radityopradipto]

Hi Sara
Regarding to the night shots, I'd suggest you to get some timer remote control from eBay... Look for 3rd party one, it's gonna be around 40-50 bucks and you'll get a decent one already
With this remote, it's gonna be easier for you to take BULB shots without distracting the camera with any vibration

And about the star trail, you'll need a remote to do it coz you'll open the shutter for around 30-60 minutes... And you'll need a total dark environment (like in a mountain) to make sure no light disturb your sensor and cause hot pixels

But actually there is a way to do star trail anywhere on earth though... Taking advantage of digital photography, I took this picture from my friend's apartment in Melbourne CBD

How to do it? It's just a series of shorter exposure photos (mine is 13 F/4 each) and combine them all using photoshop to make the stars align each other...
This photo consist of 145 exposures (666.6 Mb done with PS... Really a workout for my laptop >.<)

Hopefully it's clear enough for you
happy star trailing

Cheers