Final attempt at star trail

Quark (Trevor) · #1 03-01-2009, 06:46 PM

Hi All,

Finally have come up with a satisfactory alignment for a star trail image over my observatory.

Changed from 30 sec subs to 60 sec subs and I think that made the trails better. Weighing down the tripod base, making it more stable also helped as did utilizing the mirror lockup feature.

This image is 180 x 60 sec subs with 10 Darks. Canon 450D 17-85 mm lens at 17 mm F 4 and 400 ASA.

Built image in Star Trails.

Used IP 3.60 camera control and touched up image in CS4, slight brightness and curves tweak. Used the Noise Ninja plug-in for CS4. This really is my first experience with Noise Ninja and it does an amazing job.

My image looked very smooth from the beginning but when zoomed to 400% there was noise in it. A pass through Noise Ninja achieved pretty remarkable results.

I have included a crop of part of the original image zoomed to 400% and for comparison, the same field after using Noise Ninja. Hope they are large enough to demonstrate the effect.

Regards
Trevor

Phil · #2 03-01-2009, 07:13 PM

I am having a argument with my little girl Abby about the photo. Is that a horse head or a sheep head in the lovely photo next to the dome.
Phil

iceman (Mike) · #3 03-01-2009, 07:15 PM

Beautiful result, Trev. You're coming along nicely with the 450D.

Quark (Trevor) · #4 03-01-2009, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil

I am having a argument with my little girl Abby about the photo. Is that a horse head or a sheep head in the lovely photo next to the dome.
Phil

Hi Phil,

It's a horse head.

I had my camera setup on the round slab of concrete where my observatory used to be, before going two storey.

We have five pine posts around the slab with heavy mooring rope between them which my wife has Gold Bunny roses climbing on. Each post has a horse head on it. My wife and I were both pretty heavily into horses in our younger days, she was a very good show jumping rider and I was into 3 Day Eventing.

Regards
Trevor