Star Trails over Yosemite

[spacefuzz]

I have been wanting to experiment more with star trails lately, so shot this in Yosemite (tunnel view) last weekened.
1/2 phase moon, f/2.8 ISO 100 time: 18 minutes single exposure. Would love to know what everyone thinks, especially those who regularly shoot long exposures. Any tips or tricks for 1+ hour shots?
On the full size version you can see the climbers progress on the upper right edge of El Cap.

 

[jwbryson1]

What time of day did you take this?

 

[spacefuzz]

What time of day did you take this?

It was around 10 pm.

 

[PlanetStarbucks]

For longer shots, just stop down your aperature. Each stop doubles the time to expose. Either memorize the stops (2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22) or remember that each stop down is the prior one multiplied by the square root of 2 (1.4142 approx) which can be useful when you're working on a third or half stop.

Good shot. What feels weird though is the moonlight making it look almost like daytime. I think it takes away from the sky itself.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Nice shot. If you shoot under a new moon, you'll probably get a much more striking starfield. There's too much moonlight here for me.

 

[McNugget801]

nice shot

Would love to know what everyone thinks, especially those who regularly shoot long exposures. Any tips or tricks for 1+ hour shots?

yes, shoot shorter exposures and stack them. The advantage is that you can really make those stars pop with shorter wide open exposures and then layer in the fore ground.

I would of gone between F2.8-F5.6, ISO 800, 30sec and stacked from there.

 

[spacefuzz]

Cool, thanks all for the input!