Star Trails

[JLEphoto]

So, this Wed. I will be going to the Everglades to capture some star trails..... Of course the issue is that this is a first for. Any suggestions for starting points? Thank you for ANY advice you can offer up.

Camera: Nikon D200

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[PhotoXopher]

Pretty good read here:
Photographing Star Trails

[KmH]

Look up TPF member Astrostu's tutorials.

[TJ K]

Yep +1 on Astrostu

[astrostu]

+2 on Astrostu

[TJ K]

lol^

[sA x sKy]

So, this Wed. I will be going to the Everglades to capture some star trails..... Of course the issue is that this is a first for. Any suggestions for starting points? Thank you for ANY advice you can offer up.

Camera: Nikon D200

Use the 24-85 @ f/2.8 and put it as ISO 1600 but no more than 3200. Also, if you have a hand warmer, you might want to wrap that around your lens to prevent moisture/dew forming.

[astrostu]

Use the 24-85 @ f/2.8 and put it as ISO 1600 but no more than 3200. Also, if you have a hand warmer, you might want to wrap that around your lens to prevent moisture/dew forming.

JLEphoto - please do not take this poster's advice on ISO. You will end up with a photograph that is incredibly grainy and will saturate (become solid white) way too quickly to get any meaningful star trails, especially at an f/2.8 aperture.

I haven't done star trails in a few years, but you can take a look at the settings I used for some of my old ones by clicking here. Clicking on any of the three photos on that page will take you to larger versions as well as a table of exposure information. Looks like I didn't list aperture and ISO, but going back to the originals I can tell you that ISO was 100 and aperture was f/5.6.

[JLEphoto]

Thanks... This gives me a great starting point!

[djacobox372]

If you're going to be shooting star trails, you should be using film--long shutter speeds = noise on digital. You should be able to find a nikon film slr that will use all your lenses for $50 or so online.