As expected, some very good stuff in this thread, nice work everyone.
My most recent star trail effort. I had to be very quiet as I had swifts (or swallows) decide to come and roost literally a foot from me whilst I was out there.
A Night in Portugal by ACW#, on Flickr
Some lovely shots in here.
This was my last one that came out pretty well. I have since re-visited the church and shot from the left of the building but I had movement in my tripod (was when we were getting battered by the storms last month) so the shots were ruined
St Marys Church star trails by A_Cro, on Flickr
Now, THIS is a star trail!
I have the "Astronomy Picture Of The Day" app on my laptop and this turned up today. Some great images in the archive - almost as good as some on this forum...
I would have expected reflections of the trails.This is my first attempt at a star trail...
My experience of reflections is that it seems to depend on how still the water is. If it's quite rough you don't tend to get reflections but also the long exposure will smooth the water to make it appear calm.I would have expected reflections of the trails.
Sounds good.My experience of reflections is that it seems to depend on how still the water is. If it's quite rough you don't tend to get reflections but also the long exposure will smooth the water to make it appear calm.
If it's quite calm you should get reflections.
My experience of reflections is that it seems to depend on how still the water is. If it's quite rough you don't tend to get reflections but also the long exposure will smooth the water to make it appear calm.
If it's quite calm you should get reflections.
This was my best one with reflections. They are not very good reflections though as only the really bright stars are reflected.I would have expected reflections of the trails.
I love my star trail photography, I live for cloudless nights, I'll even go out when there is snow in the ground so long as there's no cloud around so given this shiny new forum dedicated to all things after the sun has gone to bed I thought why not have a community thread to show of your star trails...oviously comments on the photos are more than welcomed I'm sure anyone who post there photos in this thread will appreciate them...but not everyone is after full critique all the time though personally I'd encourage anyone to also have your own thread to get critique on photos you post in this thread and of course you should post a link to that thread if you have one
To get the thread rolling I'll post a couple of my own recent star trails
Snowy Star trail
88/365 (819) by mwhcvt, on Flickr
Only about 5 minutes this one but it was more for my first ever pass of the ISS
ISS OVER CHESTERTON WINDMILL by mwhcvt, on Flickr
So anyway that's my initial offerings to get it going, lets see everyone else's star trails
Love the first one,I live not far from Broadway tower,maybe I will give star trails a try soon.
Just looking on my phone but that looks pretty darn impressive for a first goFirst attempt a few weeks ago.View attachment 9243
Thanks JulesJust looking on my phone but that looks pretty darn impressive for a first go
Itching to get out and try some star trails now. I had a go a couple of years ago but some clouds decided to ruin my fun. It's interesting that you can buy a dedicated warmer for lenses and telescopes. Do you think a couple of handwarmers (the disposible bag type ones) and an elastic band would be good enough to keep the lens warm? Perhaps with a scarf wrapped round to keep the heat in. I'm saving for a house at the moment and I can imagine what my girfriend would say if I bought an electric blanket for my lens
Edit- woop! 100 posts
Yup those little pocket handwarmers (the ones with activated charcoal in them (£1 for 2 at Go Outdoors)) will work fine - I've not used them myself but have heard of many people using them with no issues
Smashing! These sort of ones are what I was thinking of using
Some of those use-once handwarmers have finely ground iron inside. The heat is generated as that reacts with atmospheric oxygen to produce rust. The potential problem is that some of them are leaky, the iron powder can get through the small holes in the bag. Normally that's no real problem, but I wouldn't fancy dusting my lenses with iron filings.