I’ve wanted to try star trail photography for some time, simply to have it at my disposal as a technique to use, should I feel the desire. Turns out it’s not terribly difficult, just incredibly particular and rather finicky to set up.
I read some online articles here and here, as well as the applicable sections of my camera manual and handbook. Then I took all the information and patched it into a plan of sorts. Here’s the first result and I’m rather pleased.
The slight reddish spots in the upper left-hand corner are due to the headlights of a car pulling into the drive just as I was finishing up.
Specs and notes:
- 17 minute exposure
- F4
- Polaris-centred (the star in the middle is the North Star)
- tripod used
- remote shutter release used, with camera set on “bulb” (this means it starts taking the photo when you click the first time and you shut off the exposure by clicking again)
- ambient temperature was around 3º Celsius.
- this technique sucks the life out of batteries in a hurry
Raising the Bar Strength & Conditioning 
Wow this is awesome. Long exposure shots can be really interesting and they are able to provide viewers with a visual they would be unable to see otherwise.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! You have inspired me to try something new!
Glad you enjoyed it! I tried it both using the in-camera noise reduction and without that setting and found that the NR didn’t make any real difference other the to double the length of time it took to take the shot. You might test shoot a ten-minute exposure with it and then another without, just to see how your camera behaves. Good luck!!
Reblogged this on All I Need.
amazing 🙂 i love astronomy