Long exposure landscape + stars without star trails

[Snydremark]

Hi All,

I keep seeing photos, such as the ones here (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html), that are evening photos that show the landscape plus the stars, but without star trails.

What I would like to understand is how do you get that kind of detail in the sky without any apparent movement.

Thanks for any information!

-E

[weeatmice]

With a ultra wide lens you can expose for long enough (maybe 20 secs+) without trails. That and the right ISO and you're ok.

A wide aperture lens also helps, but I get on ok with my 17-40 f4 at 17mm.

[Snydremark]

alrighty then, thanks :) I guess when we can actually SEE stars again I'll have to go out and play around.

[sheawyatt]

Here is a shot I took in the fall, with a 48 second exposure at 24mm. Even at a high magnification the movement of the stars is really small.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/snwyatt/2009-09-03_21-16-49_Montana.jpg

Edit: just noticed that the JPEG compression really buggers up the sky. Hold on a minute and I'll fix that.

Here is a 100% crop uncompressed. I would say the trails are basically negligible, given that it is a 17MP image and the 100% crop shows barely any movement.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/snwyatt/Screenshot2010-01-15at65327PM.png

[Catanonia]

Check my website for some articles I am writing to answer most of these types of questions.

Still work in progress, but will help you I hope.