Star Trail

[jmtonkin]

Hey everyone!

I just finished my last week as a counselor for this summer. On Thursday night, I hiked to a location at 12:00 a.m. and decided that I wanted to try my hand at star trails. After about an hour and a half of guess-work, I got one that I greatly enjoy. Thoughts?

This was a 30 minute exposure at f/8, ISO 200. I was going to take several more just like this and stack them, but my camera died half-way through the second exposure...

 

[jmtonkin]

Anyone have and CC they'd be willing to offer?

 

[McNugget801]

is the purple your sensor overheating?


You should really look into stacking.
High ISO, wide open aperture, and shorter exposures done correctly will typically yeild better results.

 

[jmtonkin]

I'm not sure what the purple is from...It could be the sensor over heating...I tried several 8 minutes exposures and wasn't liking the results; I didn't bump the ISO above 400 on those...

 

[McNugget801]

next time try
F5.6, ISO800(or higher),30sec, set the camera to continuous mode, and fire them back to back to back to back... then stack.

 

[jmtonkin]

Will do! Do you think the purple is overheating? I wasn't sure if it was that or if it was just some funky colors in the sky...

 

[RxForB3]

Considering my own struggles with star photos, I think you did great for a first try. I think the choice of foreground is very nice.

 

[jmtonkin]

Thanks! I loved hiking out there and just having some peaceful relaxing time alone.

 

[RxForB3]

That's an important and hard thing to remember. You can't get so focused on taking the photo that you don't stop to appreciate WHY you're taking the photo. Even if none of my photos the last two nights caught a meteor (and only about 3 did), I still got to enjoy some exquisite scenery and quite a show as well! Something I'll probably never forget!

 

[jmtonkin]

Amen! I was blessed to work in the beautiful Black Hills this summer! It was wonderful!

 

[molested_cow]

I envy you guys cus you are so close to the north with clear dry sky and coldness in the winter. Here it's humid and too far south. I'd suggest you to try again in the fall when the temp drops but not enough to freeze the battery.

I do 10min exposures. It depends on the lighting condition when I decide which ISO and aperture I choose. I typically take a test shot with really high ISO to get a guess on what my setting should be. That way I can get an idea how it will look like. The good thing about stacking is, if you do lose a shot half way taking it, you are not losing everything.