This needs an explanation.

[Ron Evers]

Last night we were supposed to see the northern lights - did not happen. I was set up to capture them & took the opportunity to experiment with night sky shots from the front porch. I took two shots about a minute apart, first 2s @ ISO 1600, & the second 15s @ ISO 200. The 2s shot captured more stars than did the 15s shot???

1. 2s @ ISO 1600

2. 15s @ ISO 200

Strange that the banding in #1 does not show in Lightroom, it must be brought out in the conversion to JPEG.

The light @ the horizon is due to the town of Alliston, 10 km away.

 

[Designer]

I don't agree with your assertion that more stars show up in the 2 sec. shot. You might be confusing electronic noise spots with stars.

 

[Ron Evers]

I don't agree with your assertion that more stars show up in the 2 sec. shot. You might be confusing electronic noise spots with stars.

It is hard to see in these low res pics but very obvious in the RAW files. Even some bright points disappear in the longer exposure.