Star Trails

[heyadamhey]

Here's my most successful attempt, to date, of star trail photography.
It's a combinbation of multiple "shorter" shots, becauase my ealier attempts at one looong exposure didn't work too well. I was subsequently advised against such long exposures (1 hour + ) with a dSLR as the sensor can overheat and die.

shutter 77x 30s
ISO 100
f\11

[Chewys Dad]

Very interesting Capture! I have not tried this yet, but I want to get a 10mm fish eye soon and give it a shot!
Thanks for sharing this
Michael.

[heyadamhey]

thanks Michael!

a couple of tips I forgot to mention in the original post:
* I used Nikon Camera Control to automate the shots. Preview a few shots on your laptop first. It wasn't until post production that I relaised I could've used a larger aperture and had to adjust the curves in Photoshop, which resulted in noise...
* do the shot somewhere *dark* - little or no ambient light from street lights etc
* I batch processed the shots in photoshop: each pic on a layer with blending set to "Lighten" on each subsequent layer
* something I've noticed: pointing your camera north/south will result in a circular star patter. E/W for a vertical linear pattern. aiming the camera south in the souther hemisphere (and vice versa) should result a visible circle of stars:

this pic also shows the effect of lots of ambient light...

good luck

[vakeel]

That's a real interesting picture, & obviously you put a lot of effort into it. Well done.

[alphasco]

Very nice shot! I have yet to do a star trail photo with digital. I have done it many times with film over the years. I will make it a goal to do just that next time I go out to a dark sky site.

A point to be made about star trail photography:

The circular apparent paths of the stars in the north or south are, of course, because of the earth's rotation. If you are above or below the equator, you will get complete circles only in one of the directions -- either north (for northern hemisphere) or south (for southern hemisphere). The trails in the opposite directions, respectively will be arcs, but none will be completely circular. Since you in the southern hemisphere, your photo was centered on your south celestial pole in the sky.

If you are exactly on the equator, you will not get complete circles in either direction. With your camera pointed exactly north or south, you will get half-circles with their centers on the horizon.

[heyadamhey]

Thanks guys.

alphasco - you much more eloquently said what I was trying to convery
yeah, first pic was aiming north, second pic pic aiming south; both in the southern hemisphere.
I discovered this by accident with the first pic

I actually want to try this with film, in order to get it in one capture and avoid the pixellated look of the trails

[Heaterguy]

Really nice shot.

[leonaashlee]

Very cool idea...although I probably have no interest in doing this myself...I really do enjoy seeing it when someone else does.

[fstopMike]

Very, very interesting shot!

[heyadamhey]

Thanks everyone