Shooting Star Trails

[Dizzy]

I've seen a number of posts requesting assistance on how to take images of the
night sky, including star trails. I found this link from a fellow in NZ that gives some
very easy to follow directions on taking excellent star trail images.

http://www.astronomypix.com/Wideangle/WideAngle.html

I've been wanting to do some astrophotography with my D90, and even have an equatorial mount (for tracking), but unfortunately we'll be clouded out for the next week..

Hope the link can help someone nail a perfect Star Trail shot!

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks for the link Mike.

I have tagged the thread for Astrophotography so it will appear if people search here by that method.
(e.g. click the link above)

Cheers,

[DoesNotFollow]

Also worth mentioning for fixed star images is the rule of 500. Divide 500 by your (full frame equivalent) focal length, and you get the maximum time in seconds that you can expose for and still have stars appear as points of light. No need for any special tracking mount.

You can use 450 or 400 depending on how you define points of light. I've also heard 600 works well if you need the extra exposure, but I find that stars start to streak around there.

[Bobobird]

Nice site but this is the one I recommend whenever this question crops up. The rule of 500 is clearly explained there.

http://theamusing.com/photography/st...html/?w=flickr