Best Settings For Star Pics?

[lassa8]

Here's a quick way to roughly figure out how long you can expose before you get star trails without a tracking mount: 1000/focal length. You have to play with it a bit, but it's a good place to start.

For example: 18mm --> 55-60 seconds, 50mm --> 20 seconds, 175mm --> 5.7 seconds, 400mm --> 2.5 seconds, etc.

I think I used a motorized mount for most of my photos in this set, but maybe not: Astrophotos - a set on Flickr

 

[lassa8]

Forgot to add...you will have less apparent motion of the stars if you shoot towards the celestial pole (ie: Polaris, the North Star) than if you shoot towards the celestial equator. So, if you aim north you might get away with a slightly longer exposure.