One of the 400 plus shots taken to comprise the video I posted here a few days ago, the first ninety minutes worth were all taken before any clouds rolled in. Here are 137 photos merged using the excellent (and free) stacking program startrails. Each shot taken with a Nikon D90 with a NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 lens. Taken at f/1.8, ISO 200, 39 second exposures (one second in between each shot).

Star trail photo is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

I’m getting better at this.

Taken with the TR-M intervalometer from Satechi set to 40 second exposures (168 total images stacked with startrails software). ISO 400, F 3.5, 18-105mm Nikon kit lens at 18mm.

Star Trails from 3/6 is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

On the evening of March 5, I attempted to use an intervalometer to take 236 photos of the night time sky, each 30 seconds long. Because I didn’t have all the settings on the camera  properly adjusted. Instead of 235 photos I could combine, I ended up with 117 useful shots, and 118 all black images.

I’ll try again soon.

Fail Trail is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal

With my lens dialed all the way back to 18 mm and an exposure of almost 29 minutes, here’s my first attempt at star trails.

Here’s the full EXIF info if you’re interested, but more interesting to me was what it looked like untouched.  If you scroll down you’ll see the original image looks like broad daylight.

Clouds rolled in during the capture. With a 29 minute exposure, you never know what you’re gonna get.

What are star trails? It’s what the stars look like when you open the shutter of your camera, and leave it that way for a long time. The stars seem to rotate in the sky (it’s really we who rotate), and each star carves a small arc of white light on the picture.

In a capture of 29 minutes, we’d expect each star to travel 2% around the circle, or about 7.25 degrees. In this case, I don’t know when the clouds rolled in and cut them off from view, but probably right at the end of the exposure. The moon was about 94% full, so when it rose, it really lit things up. Thus the unedited photo looks like daylight with dim streaks.

My first star trails is brought to you by j.ronald.lee - photography / journal