Star trails- How to capture?

[Lumen Miner]

Spent an hour last night, out trying to capture some star trails.

I ended up with an over-exposed shot, which I can't get anything out of.

I suspect I need to stop my lens right down, to capture an hour long exposure. Would that be correct?

I will try again tonight, but was hoping on some clarification, before spending another hour at it.

Thanks for you help. :)

[erick]

Many many shorter exposures then put together. I'll just find a useful site.


Edit: Here it is:- http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

I presume you have a digital camera?

Film is done by single long exposure.

See also:- http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=39947

[Lumen Miner]

Ok, that explains it...

Yes, I have a dslr 350d.


Hmmm, that "star trails" won't run on my comp for some reason....

Is there any other programs on the net which can stack for trails....

Deep sky won't do that, will it? It will align them I think....?

[Lumen Miner]

OK, i'm an hour into a another go... I found another program that works, on my silly computer...

I am taking 30second frames.
Then I will stack them...

Hopefully this attempt works!! :)

Edit~ It's amazing the amount of air traffic, that is over Sydney!!
This shot is going to end up, with alot of cross light mess from them....

I won't be able to remove those frames will I? If I take them out, I'll get gaps I guess..
Damn.. :(


Edit2~ Well yes I was right, bit of air traffic.
Did manage to capture 2 pieces of space junk, so that was a bonus. See deep sky image forum for my results.


Thanks Eric!!!

[rastis95]

Hi Mitch

Im in the same boat as you at the moment. Ive been taking up to 6 min exposures with good results, starting to get some light pollution though, haven't stopped the lens down yet to try and counter act it. What iso are you using.

Cheers
Scott :D

[Lumen Miner]

I try and keep it low, 400ish.

I've taken fond of 30sec exposures.... That way I can set the camera up on remote continuous and come back inside.

[bojan]

You can try with lower ISO setting as well

[CoombellKid]

Here's a shot I took with my 450D last night before and after processing.
It's a single exposure that was intended to go for about 40minites, but
the operator fell asleep. I forgot take any darks and used a 301 second
dark made a few weeks back. Apart from that no other processing.

18mm lens set to f/8.0
ISO 400
Exposure 4456 seconds
RAW mode

The foreground is being lit up by two street lights, one just out of view
to the right.

Cheers,CS