Star trail over Skye

whutusay

whutusay

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John
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I took this last year from the highest point on Eilean Shona in Scotland.
Its an amalgation (in Photoshop) of 399 28 second exposures (f4.0 ISO3200 Sigma 10-20 at 10mm).
I love it as it is (which is why I'm posting it :) but does anyone have any advice on how to make the star trails more circular?

I've tried adding lens corrections in Lightroom, but I don't see the effect I would expect, and I'm wondering if there are distortions I just can't remove?

View attachment 43420
 
Why make them more circular? That is the way they appear and that is a great shot of them.

If you take the shot at the North Pole they will be circular :)

Dave
 
:) I hope you're right!
I assumed that because they were at infinity they would be circular anyway, and anything else would be distortion?
I'd be happy to be wrong though (and stop wondering).
 
The stars form trails because of the Earth's rotation. The Earth rotates abouts its N/S axis and the stars trace out a circle around the axis. If we were at one of the poles the centre of the rotation would be above our heads and the trails would look circular. If we are anywhere else and looking north we see the circular trails at an angle which gives the non-circular appearnace.

I don't know if the lens has introduced any distortion - I can't see any, but if there is any it is going to be very small compared to the appearance of the trails caused by the latitude.

Dave
 
Thanks for the nice comments :).
I'm very happy with the picture, the foreground was almost a fluke as the horizon looked like this (below) when I got to the top.
I created an alternative version with only the dark skies and it doesn't look half as good.
I actually planned to do the image as landscape format, but when I got there I couldn't be sure whether the North star would manage to appear in the image,
View attachment 43430
 
Another good one, John.

I'd crop out some of the black foreground and a bit of the sky, but as it is, it is more than decent, and also an example that a plain sky can look good.

Dave
 
I actually did that cropping for another version.
I love the way the light falls away to nothing.
 
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