Need some help please

[jus-startingout]

Im new to photography and am trying out all different styles,i am really interested in the capture of movement style and am currently trying to take a star trail photo.This shot was done in full manual mode with auto focus switched off,an exposure time of around 50 minutes,aperature of 4.5 and iso 100,im using a kit lens 18-55mm and had it zoomed all the way in.It captured the blur in the stars good but as you can see the whole picture is of bad quality.Any suggestions on what has happened and what i can do to fix this.Normally i would just keep experimenting but considering the exposure is quite time consuming i thought id ask for some pointers.

[cipher]

My initial thoughts are it looks like you got what you aimed for. And that is not meant in a bad way.

The two things I notice is a lot of noise which will happen with any long exposure, particularly on a lower-end camera; and a lack of context; and you are zoomed in on just a few stars which is what showed up.

Personally I would zoom out and get more of the sky and minimize the effects of camera movement during the exposure. Also, to get thinner lines of the trails, try an f/stop of 22 or so. It is like shooting the moon, its dark so you think open up, but the moon is actually pretty bright so you need to close down.

Check out Jim Goldstein. He does a lot of star-trail photography and has recently released a book on it. I haven't looked too deeply into his blog yet, but there may be some information there to help you as well.

JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein Photography

[jus-startingout]

Thanks for your ideas and help,i appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question! after reading about the star trails that was my first attempt so am pretty happy that i actually caught the movement.Your answer makes alot of sense and it was like you read my thoughts in regards to choosing what F number i used.Thanks for the link and i will definatly read up on that.
Once again thanks for taking the time to respond