More Star Trails

About a month and half ago, I attempted to take some photos of star trails (the movement of the stars in the sky). At the time, I didn’t have a remote shutter release for my camera, which meant that my star trails were not smooth, but instead shaky.  I now have a remote shutter release, so I was able to take one long exposure shot (using the bulb mode on my camera) instead of making a composite shot, so the trails are much smoother this time around. I have a feeling I’ll be taking many more star trails photos – hopefully with some more interesting foregrounds as well.

These photos all have somewhat different settings. The first two are more traditional star trails photos while the last one has more of a "twinkling" star effect (much shorter exposure than the first two).

 

28mm, focused at infinity, f/4.5, ISO 400, SS 805 seconds (exposed using bulb mode)

 

28mm, focused at infinity, f/18, ISO 400, SS 1002 seconds (exposed using bulb mode)

Notice how much darker this one is because of the aperture difference even though this one was exposed for a longer length of time.

 

28mm, focused at infinity, f/4.5, ISO 400, SS 90 seconds

The Night Sky

Recently I read about taking photos called star trails that map the stars movement across the sky. My first opportunity outside the city, I had to try to take a star trails photo (not that it couldn’t be done in the city depending on where you are, but you can see so many more stars outside the city).

(f/3.5, ISO 640, 30 second exposure, 28mm, focus at infinity)

I took the above shot by combing 32 consecutive 30-second exposure shots. You’ll notice that my star trails aren’t completely smooth. The “shakiness” is a product of the fact that I don’t have a remote shutter release for my camera, so I have to manually press the shutter every 30 seconds. For one, I’m shaky, plus I’m taking my hands on and off the camera during a longer exposure. Secondly, I didn’t always hit the shutter as quickly as I needed to hit it, so there may have be a brief “gap” in the trail. I cannot wait to take a more star trails photos once I have a remote! Oh, and the random streak across the sky is a plane.

There are a couple of common methods you can use to take a star trails photo. You can take a single long exposure shot (say 20 or 30 minutes or even longer) using the “bulb” setting on your camera or you can take many shorter exposure shots (only 30 seconds  - shorter compared to a 30 minutes exposure at least!), and make a composite image. This article and this article explain it in more detail. The second article includes a program that automatically makes a composite image for you – it is awesome! I used it to make my image.

Here are a few other photos I took last night. Do you recognize a famous constellation in the first one?

 

 

Isn’t God’s creation so beautiful and amazing? My photos don’t do it justice!