Wanna shoot startrails - newbie questions.

Were going to try shooting star trails when it gets dark, if it could manage to be fairly clear.

The setup I use:

1000D (EOS Rebel XS)
Canon 50mm set on infinity focus.
Cabel remote

The more technical:
ISO 100
F/9
Shutter speed: 30 sec.
Shot in RAW


But I would obviously like to avoid too large gaps in my trails, so I'm thinking whether it is an advantage to turn noise reduction off? But I have not really figured out how to do it on a 1000D, anyone have any knowledge about it?

I also have to stack my pictures, how do I do this easiest? With startrails.exe?

The thing I fear the most is that I get some hot pixels, can there be any lasting damage?
I'm planning to leave it on for one hour if that changes anything, that would be.

Other things I should take into account?

Seems you have it about right. P155 of the manual covers long exposure noise reduction - turn it off. An interesting foreground is, IMHO, the most important part. Look forward to seeing some samples. Good Luck!

I'm glad that it's about right. I'll look in the manual about the noise reduction.

About the foreground I found a tree, with some braches "reaching" towards the sky. Just not sure if I should light it with an LED light or not.

I'd open up your lens a lot more than f/9 with ISO 100. Probably f/4 is as small as you'd want to go, with ISO 200 or 400. Noise pollution, or skyglow, is the biggest problem you'll face unless you're in a very dark-sky area. Just try to get as far away from city lights as possible.

Okay, I'll try with the F/4 on ISO 200 and see how it turns out.

I'm just a little afraid that It will fry some pixels on my camera.. Any one with som experience that can calm me?

N1CK wrote in post #12345963
Okay, I'll try with the F/4 on ISO 200 and see how it turns out.

I'm just a little afraid that It will fry some pixels on my camera.. Any one with som experience that can calm me?

IMHO, you can forget about frying pixels. Leaving the shutter open for extended periods of time will do nothing to the sensor that I know of. Otherwise why would the manufacturer give us a "B" setting

That's true .
I will just take the chance, living on the edge !

If you were leaving your shutter open for extended amounts of time in the direct sun ( like video) you could risk heating your sensor, but on a cool dark night, I don't think any harm can be done.

You're right, I didn't take into consideration that it's cold outside. It's below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 celcius) so it will cool the sensor.

Yup, assuming little to no light pollution you'll get the best results by opening wide and turning the ISO all the way up.

I would also go with a wider angle lens. On a crop sensor your 50 is not going to give you dramatic skies. It will give you quicker trails though. Good luck.

The 50 should be good for capturing certain constellations and, as mentioned, star trails. Pixels won't fry due to long exposures at night, but extended exposure times (particularly at high ISO) can give you noise issues. The best thing is to simply experiment and find what works and what doesn't. Here's a link to a number of images with information about the settings and equipment used to take each shot: http://www.astropix.co​m/HTML/BEGINNER/Beginn​er.htmThere's a lot more basic info online, not to mention various books on the subject you can get from the library (through interlibrary loan if your local branch doesn't have one in its collection).

Cool, I'll test it out as soon the sky allows it.
I was thinking about going for this spot, I'm just not sure if there's too much light pollution.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

^looked like a pretty good conditions to try it, any other ones from that night?

It's a pretty old picture, 9 months or so. I was just going through some pictures to find a potential location .

But no, I don't have any other pictures. There were bats flying less than 2 meters from my head, it made me kind of uncomfortable.