Star trail Focus

[shaundesigner]

Hi Guys,

i hope everyone is staying safe.

im struggling with focusing at night doing star trails.

currently I’m using manual focus, taking a shot and tweeting focus until it looks sharp, but I’m just not happy with the end result.

current setup and settings,
Sony a6300 | Sigma 30mm 1.4 with tripod.
A: 1.4 | SS: 20 seconds | ISO: 1250 | 2 second intervals.

many suggestions would be amazing.

 

[hunnymonster]

Pick a star, view on LCD screen & use any magnify function that your camera has to tweak the focus?

 

[DinkyDarwin]

Quite often when I take a picture I think I could do much better, yet other people say it's really good.
Sometimes we can be over critical of our own work.
Why not post an image and see what people can advice.

 

[shaundesigner]

 

[shaundesigner]

 

[Scooter]

Astronomers use a Bahtinov mask https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahtinov_mask

https://www.365astronomy.com/farpoi...g-tool-bahtinov-focusing-mask-62mm-fp440.html

or make your own... (looks a bit fiddly for the sake of £13 to me though)

http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html

 

[shaundesigner]

Thanks I’ll give that a look over, I wanna try and get out again soon. I’d love to get a few good star trail images

 

[LeeRatters]

Pick a star, view on LCD screen & use any magnify function that your camera has to tweak the focus?

That's what I've always done.