Star trails over the city

[StephenM]

Hi all,

I decided to have a go at star trails over the Brisbane CBD this morning. I've been wondering for a while if it is possible to capture a reasonable number of stars without having the city lights too overexposed... and the answer is yes! (although I had to selectively reduce the exposure of the city lights using a neutral density gradient filter in Lightroom 3). This is 75 minutes worth of 15 second exposures with the 15-85mm lens @ 24mm, f/7.1 and 400 iso, beginning at 4:15am. It was cold and windy up on the Mount Coot-tha, but worth the effort I think.

The two brightest streaks on the left are of course Venus and Jupiter, Orion is rising just to the right of centre, and Sirius is entering from the right hand side.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

[gregbradley]

Very nicely done. It looks like Brisbane is having a giant meteor shower!

Greg.

[StephenM]

Thanks Greg!

Cheers,
Stephen

[silv]

yay!
could be a movie poster for an apocalyptic sci-fi plot.
should look great as a big printout!

(2 newbie questions:
how come the trails are so straight and not curved at all? is that due to the "short" time of 75minutes covered in the frames?
and what's the streak on the far left doing ... looks dangerous in its different angle... cool! )

[iceman]

That worked out great, Stephen! Nicely done.

[StephenM]

Thanks silv! In answer to your questions, the trails do not show much of a curve because I was pointing towards the celestial equator for these images. The curves become much more prominant as you near the celestial poles. And the streak on the far left is a plane approaching Brisbane airport (which I should clone out!).

Cheers,
Stephen



Thanks Mike!

Cheers,
Stephen

[silv]

gee, thanks for the answers.

uhm, I feel, it adds an additional "story line" to the image.
and un-imposingly so. I like it.

it's an amazing picture.....force, aggression, power ... uuuahhhhh!

[lacad01]

Nice one! Looks like Brisbane under attack :)

[StephenM]

Thanks again for the feedback silv! Much appeciated.



Thanks Adam! A few people have said that in response to this image.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Liz]

That looks great Stephen!! :thumbsup:

Love the look of the city too, not overexposed, and very clear. Startrails look really good too. :)

[CapturingTheNight]

Lovely image Stephen :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Thanks Liz and Greg! I'm glad you like it.

Cheers,
Stephen