First attempt at Star Trails

[gareth6233]

This is my first attempt at a star trail, lighting conditions wearnt great, but any any help where i can make improvements would be very much welcome!

the picture is 42 images stacked 20 seconds at F5.6 800 ISO

[Pete Presland]

what focal length were you using, it looks quite long?

[gareth6233]

it was about 35mm

[Pete Presland]

i would go for the shortest you have and the longest exposures you can managed without completely washing out the image.

[gareth6233]

I originally tried a 30 second exposure, but the light polution washed it all out

[jambouk]

Good start. Nice arc starting to form.

Can you point the camera either to Polaris or the south as the arcs look more impressive there; or is light pollution a limiting factor in these directions?

Can you get wider than 35mm? Was it really 35mm as it looks like quite a narrow field of view. What is the bright object in the centre?

You don't have a continuous line, which means your camera had four regular breaks during the imaging run; was this purposeful?

Was this recently done with a full moon? Moon light washes trails out quite a lot, better to do it 7-14 days or either side of a full moon in my experience.

But your settings seem appropriate otherwise. It's very much trial and error what works with your kit and your location.

Look forward to seeing more of your images as you progress.

Janes

[jambouk]

Here is a document i put together on star trails, but i think you've already got the basics so not sure it will add much:

http://66.147.242.181/~nottinh5/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/star-trailsnas.pdf

James

[Pete Presland]

Here is a document i put together on star trails, but i think you've already got the basics so not sure it will add much:

http://66.147.242.181/~nottinh5/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/star-trailsnas.pdf

James

i would say that pretty covers it all.

[gareth6233]

The light polution was too much to point north. As this was a first attempt i didnt go too far. The breaks are where i was checking the images on the camera. As far as I am aware, the bright one in the middle is a star.

Thanks for link, that will come in handy.

[gareth6233]

How "Wide" would you suggest for the focal length?

[jambouk]

As wide as possible. I think this was about 18mm on a cropped sensor (canon 600d):

But it depends where you point the camera. 35mm looking straight at polaris would be good; looking east or west from a latitude of 52* north at 35mm might just look a bit less interesting, unless you have something good in the foreground.

James

[gareth6233]

Thanks James. As soon as we have a decent night for it, I am going to make a journey out of town to find a better location.

Great pic by the way.