Star Trail With Intervalometer Problem

Bilko

Bilko

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Robert
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I tried to see if I could do some star trails with an intervalometer last night.

It didn't work.

I had the intervalometer set to take 30 exposures 30 seconds long with a ten second gap.

What I got was 15 shots 30 seconds long with every second shot being 10 seconds long.

I'm using a Sandisk Extreme Class 10 card. But is the reason for the shortened exposures the card not finishing writing the exposure?
 
I think you've got the intervalometer set-up to start an exposure of 30 seconds every 10 seconds.

Try increasing the interval to 40 seconds.
 
Stratman said:
Is long exposure noise reduction turned on?
Click to expand...

That's another possibility.

It would be useful to know the interval between shots as well. Any chance of the full exif data for the first four shots?
 
Just out of interest would a 10 second gap not leave you with gaps in the star trails? (I have never really played with star trails).
 
I would have thought it certainly runs the risk of leaving small gaps personally, I tried some star trails recently for the first time and have learnt 3 important things specifically.

1. Have something in the foreground for interest, same advice I've seen on here about November when shooting fireworks.

2. Infinity on autofocus lenses is not the same as on older manual ones, i.e. don't just twist the lens in manual all the way toward infinity which is why my first attempt wasn't as sharp as I've seen some others.

3. It's a pain if you only have a standard wireless remote as you have to press the shutter every 30 seconds, no fun at minus 4 celcius. I've bought a wired one now with lock specifically for my next attempt :bonk:
I did consider an intervalometer until someone pointed out the above will do the same thing for a few quid :thumbs:
 
I changed it to.
Delay - 10 Seconds
Long - 30 seconds
Interval - 40 Seconds

Now all the shots are 30 seconds long.


Noise reduction is turned on.
 
Turn of NR you really don't nead it :thumbs: the stacking process reduces noise in it's self and if you really want to you can apply a little more in PP

Why are you having a 10 second gap, all that it going to do is cause dotty trails :thinking:

Matt
MWHCVT
 
Definitely, I turned off my noise reduction too even though I shoot in RAW and I keep seeing posts where some think it doesn't matter for RAW, I know it definitely matters in Jpeg.

Bilko, turn off the noise reduction and go with 30 sec exposures without delays mate, you'll get a much better star trail.
 
Thanks for the help.

I took off Noise Reduction and it made all the difference. The write time to the card is slashed to nowt. Now with only one second delay time it's taking the pictures at the right times.

One last question.

Should I leave noise reduction off for everything or just stacking?
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Just out of interest would a 10 second gap not leave you with gaps in the star trails? (I have never really played with star trails).
Click to expand...

You get gaps on some cameras because there's a little pause between one exposure and the next even with all the processing options turned off. How noticeable it is depends on the focal length used.
There's some software called StarTracer for fixing it or you can do it manually with something that'll let you clone or motion blur an image.
You can use it for effect too by skipping a frame or a few to get patterns instead of a solid line.

Bilko said:
I changed it to.
Delay - 10 Seconds
Long - 30 seconds
Interval - 40 Seconds
Click to expand...
I've never had cause to use an intervalometer so I don't know, but can you lock it like you might want to for bulb mode for example? If you set the camera to 30 seconds and continuous drive then lock your remote it'll take a another shot as soon as it's finished the previous one.
 
Why the 10 second or gap? That'll leave gaps in the trails. If you want smooth trails you need burst/continuous mode with as near to no gap as possible.

If you use startrails.de to stack (its excellent) remember to put the lens cap on and shoot a few dark frames before you finish.
Don't bother with in-camera noise reduction.
 
Bilko said:
Should I leave noise reduction off for everything or just stacking?
Click to expand...

Yes, it just slows the write speed to the card down.

Now it's off you will most likely find your frames per second has increased in burst shooting mode.
 
I don't know why I had a ten second gap :shrug:

I never realised how much it slowed the write speed down having it on.
 
gnirtS said:
Why the 10 second or gap? That'll leave gaps in the trails. If you want smooth trails you need burst/continuous mode with as near to no gap as possible.

If you use startrails.de to stack (its excellent) remember to put the lens cap on and shoot a few dark frames before you finish.
Don't bother with in-camera noise reduction.
Click to expand...

I've never seen dark frames as necessary, I've never done them and most of the star trails guy's I've talked to in the past don't use that trick either, it's really not needed, also StarStaX is a newer and better program for stacking trails :thumbs:

Matt
MWHCVT
 
Not even sure why you would need an interferometer , a wired shutter release with a lock should be all you need, set the camera to continuous shooting with a 30 second exposure and as soon as the last shot finishes it takes the next one and yes noise reduction off.
 
MWHCVT said:
I've never seen dark frames as necessary, I've never done them and most of the star trails guy's I've talked to in the past don't use that trick either, it's really not needed, also StarStaX is a newer and better program for stacking trails :thumbs:

Matt
MWHCVT
Click to expand...

Just tried StarStax and seems fine (although looks to produce identical output to startrails.de to me anyway).

Just tried dark frame vs no dark frame and there are 1 or 2 hot pixels missing from the image when i included 2 darks so for me at least it makes a slight difference.

Im in the UK at the moment and was -8 for my tests - i guess back in the desert with +30 it might make more of a difference to noise with dark frames.
 
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