About two weeks ago, it was a new moon. April 18th to be precise. All the stars were aligned, sorry for the pun. Clear night around 30° and I was home with nothing to do.
Perfect for some star trails! So I waited until it got good an dark - after 10:00 PM. Which was probably the most difficult part. With the time change and the days getting longer the true night doesn't really happen until later. Oh well thats the trade off for not having to wear snow pants, winter boots and balaclava.
I tried to center on Polaris, the north star.
When I got that done I set my lens to the widest angle it would manage. Then set the interval timer in the camera to take 200 pictures at 15 seconds each every 18 seconds. (For you interested F5.6 and ISO 800). Each image looked would look like the one above.
And I let it rip. I sat outside with it for a while. Listening to animals crunch through the woods. However, this was going to take an hour, so I went back in the house and warmed up for a bit.
The next morning I pulled the pictures together, stuck them in the free software StarStax and processed the 200 pictures into one composition.
I almost got it perfectly centered. In one hour the stars moved enough to provide those trails. It also eventually lit up the tree in the corner. I wish I would have moved closer to the woods, It may have provided even more foreground to the shot. I probably won't have the opportunity to do it again until next year (at least with skeletal trees) as I would expect leaves to be on the trees next new moon. I hope they do anyway.
I have a few ideas of then next time I do this. I really think I need to drive to some spots with less light pollution as well. I shouldn't have to go too far.
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