Hi all

I've never done any star trail images before, and wanted to give some a try at SPSP. I didn't know what ISO to use, how long each exposure should be etc, so I just guessed.

23 images x 5 min exposures @ ISO400, with an unmodded Canon 350D on a fixed tripod (obviously). No dark frames or flats applied.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I wanted to do more.. My run was cut short by the lens fogging up

Anyway it was good practise for next time. Next time i'll use longer exposures, and take some darks and flats. I'll also use a dew strap on the lens, and i'll use a timer remote (or the laptop).. I didn't have one, so I was running back and forth between this camera and my scope to press the button every 5 minutes I also had to change batteries a few times which caused some gaps when one exposure wouldn't write out to the card because of low battery.

1200px image here:
Star Trails in the Field at South Pacific Star Party

Thanks for looking.

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

Very nice shot. Good color in the stars. I had a friend as about colors in the stars on a trail shot phrased as "why did you color the stars?" It took some convincing that stars really do have color.

Film is very convenient for star trail shots. Low noise, and you can expose and expose and expose....

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Observatorio de la Ballona

Beautiful.

Not using a DSLR I hadn't thought about battery life. You go through more than one set in a night it appears. I didn't realize they were so battery hungry. Though electronic shutter SLRs have that problem from holding the shutter open. Guess its the same with DSLRs.

Actually a driven scope can make interesting trails. One of our club members threw his drive switch to your southern hemisphere then got 360 degree star trails in 12 hours! Neat trick. His mount wasn't perfectly aligned however so they didn't quite match but most didn't notice. Doesn't work with a telescope in the foreground however. A little photoshop treatment could fix that however.

Rick

Very Nice star trails especially looking to the southern section of the sky.All are sharp and nice foreground also.

THanks guys, I want to do more of these type of shots, but I need to travel to do it. Sydney is to the south of me, so there'd be huge sky glow.

Rick, do you have a link to 12hr 360deg one? What a great idea.

__________________
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

[quote=iceman;
Rick, do you have a link to 12hr 360deg one? What a great idea.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately it isn't on the web that I'm aware of. The fellow who took it is now in his 80's and blind. It was made in the early 60's using the mount and drive on a Criterion RV6, quite a classic telescope of that era. The slide is probably in his collection but that's 600 miles from me and he can no longer see to find it.

Rick

I was too quick with my response. I called his daughter to see if she could find the photo. Seems she entered it into an astrophoto contest last year and it won! The winners of the 2006 contest are on the web. It's at the bottom of the page. I see it was taken in 1970. I thought it was well before that.

http://www.astro-tom.com/photo_conte...06_winners.htm

Rick

heh that is very cool, thanks Rick!

Great story too.

__________________
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery