Star trails

[snapper123]

I am going to have a first attempt at star trails tonight, and was looking for any tips or advice? Will be using 500D or 350D with canon 18-55 mm kit lens on tripod with remote shutter release. Thanks.

[Adrena1in]

Personally I would go for 18mm, manual focus, (does the 500D have Live View? Use that to find a bright star, or Jupiter, to achieve good focus). Make sure In-Camera Noise Reduction is off and also turn off Mirror-Lockup. I would set the camera to burst shooting mode too.

Find your spot and set up and try a 30" exposure, 18mm, aperture wide open and then stopped down a couple, ISO 800. Check the result and see what you think. If it's too dark you could go to BULB mode and try 60s. (Main reason I like 30s is because I can lock the remote shutter down and leave the camera to do it's thing. Plus I get some light pollution where I am, so 30s is usually enough.)

Anyway, once you're happy with what you're getting repeatedly take shots and then use something like the FREE software from Startrails.de to stack all the images together.

Alternatively, you could try exposing for 5 or 10 minues at a time if you want, if the skies are REALLY dark, and then you'll only have 3 or 4 images to stack.

(Another reason I like 30s images is that I can put them into a timelapse video to make an animation.)