Mystic Star trails

[Galactic Wanderer]

This is a weird pic, in my opinion. I decided to point the camera towards polaris and leave the shutter open for a very long time. I am discovering new things in astronomy all the time and this was the result. Do please give any feedback as I'm always looking to make better pictures than the last one!

Thanks for looking!

Seb

 

[ronin]

Slightly confused.

They are star trails, as we rotate the stars create a circular path around the polar axis. Further away from the Pole they are the longer the trail appears. Leave it long enough and you would get a circle, but you would really need to be within the arctic circle on the Winter solstice to get really extensive ones and the camera chip could fry. Polaris will be making a very small circle as it is close to the pole but not perfect.

There is a package called Startrails (free) to make them up from a series of individual images, just most people want to get rid of star trails not generate them.

Just about any exposure over say 30 seconds on a fixed tripod will show trailing. And often less time as you move away from the Pole and closer to the ecliptic (??)

[wimvb]

Indeed, nothing weird here. From the lenght of the trails (actually the angle between beginning of trail, Polaris and end of trail), you can determine exposure length.

BTW Polaris is the bright star in the upper right corner.

1 hour ago, ronin said:

Slightly confused.

They are star trails, as we rotate the stars create a circular path around the polar axis. Further away from the Pole they are the longer the trail appears. Leave it long enough and you would get a circle, but you would really need to be within the arctic circle on the Winter solstice to get really extensive ones and the camera chip could fry. Polaris will be making a very small circle as it is close to the pole but not perfect.

There is a package called Startrails (free) to make them up from a series of individual images, just most people want to get rid of star trails not generate them.

Just about any exposure over say 30 seconds on a fixed tripod will show trailing. And often less time as you move away from the Pole and closer to the ecliptic (??)

Actually, as from last wednesday, you can (with proper filter, etc) even get a circular suntrail. The sun doesn't make it below the horizon until mid July I believe.

If you fancy doing som sun spot photography during night time, now is a good time.

If you want circular star trails, you'll have to wait until end November/early December

 

Cheers,

[Galactic Wanderer]

Thanks for the replies!

seb