How take longer exposures than 30 minutes?

I have a Canon EOS Rebel. I would like to take a longer exposure with it for imaging stars at night. I have the RS60-e3, but can't get a camera click when I try to use it. Comments?

I use bulb and Manual too.

30 min exposure will turn to mud on a rebel. Why do you want to exposure for 30 minutes? Star trails?

If so, look into StarStax and an intervelometer instead. Much cleaner results - although more work.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #16928143
30 min exposure will turn to mud on a rebel. Why do you want to exposure for 30 minutes? Star trails?

If so, look into StarStax and an intervelometer instead. Much cleaner results - although more work.

I realized that and changed the post.

you have also the option to install Magic Lantern on your body (witch is in fact on your memory card) and get plenty of option like intervalometer, very long exposure up to 8 hours, etc ...

I had hoped to catch meteor trails tonight. There's a shower tonight. I'd hoped to get long exposures, so that I could do something rather than attending to the Canon longer than 30". Other astro work.

I'd still recommend an intervelometer here. Will allow you to set up 30 second (or whatever) exposures and will keep firing until the camera battery dies.

ML will work too... but it's nice to have an intervelometer if you do this a lot.

Your remote shutter cable used in Manual Mode should allow you to lock your shutter open for however long you desire. I use a third party remote cable, not the Canon, but can lock the shutter open by pressing the button then pushing it forward. Works on my T4i.

Lucky you to have been able to see the meteor shower. Here I did get to see a shower, rain shower. Has been cloudy and rainy for the last 2 days and nights.

Get a timer remote that works with your camera. it will allow you to set the exposure time and the amount of exposures you want...

http://www.ebay.com …bel+timer+remot​e&_sacat=0

Todd Lambert wrote in post #16928235
I'd still recommend an intervelometer here. Will allow you to set up 30 second (or whatever) exposures and will keep firing until the camera battery dies.

ML will work too... but it's nice to have an intervelometer if you do this a lot.

ML? intervelometer? Did I miss something above?

frozenframe wrote in post #16928466
Your remote shutter cable used in Manual Mode should allow you to lock your shutter open for however long you desire. I use a third party remote cable, not the Canon, but can lock the shutter open by pressing the button then pushing it forward. Works on my T4i.

Lucky you to have been able to see the meteor shower. Here I did get to see a shower, rain shower. Has been cloudy and rainy for the last 2 days and nights.

The shower was pretty much a bust. 10-20 meteors per hour.

A day late. I tried the V60 this morning and it worked in bulb mode. Maybe I didn't have the V60 inserted fully into the camera last night. I haven't worked with the camera for almost 3 years. I use it primarily for vacation and nature photos. Haven't been tripping for those 3 years. I've been using my Canon Elph a lot. Very handy.

I mentioned intervelometer because it sounds like that’s what you want. They're cheap and will do what you want.


The Magic Lantern firmware will allow you to do this too... its free.

sry delete

solarblast wrote in post #16928136
I have a Canon EOS Rebel. I would like to take a longer exposure with it for imaging stars at night. I have the RS60-e3, but can't get a camera click when I try to use it. Comments?

I use bulb and Manual too.

Heya,

I use the iOptron 3302B for wide field stars.

Here's a thread of it in use, on a Rebel.

For long exposure simply to capture meteors and all, you can do fine with 20~30 second bursts with a shutter release timer and just let it go until the battery is empty. Doing a single exposure for a few hours to capture meteors will simply result in a messy, likely over-exposed image.

Very best,

I'd agree that a 30-minute exposure will be messy.

Regarding the RS60-e3 remote switch, you can go longer than 30" using the Bulb exposure mode, so sure you can do that and keep the shutter open, it's just that the longer you go, the more messy/noisy your image will be, believe me!

An intervalometer was mentioned, that will be set to fire your camera for a designated shutter time at designated intervals. You can get a release cable that has an intervalometer, Canon sells one but you can also get third-party ones for less expensive. Several years ago I got the Canon one for my 30D/5DC bodies, the TC-80N3, but 1)It may not fit the Rebel input hole, at least not without an adapter, and 2) There may be a newer model. But like I said you can get third-party ones if you shop around.

The software approach would be Magic Lantern, as was mentioned.

The benefit of taking many exposures at, say, 20-30 seconds, is that any one exposure could catch a singe meteorite streak. Then, if you end up with numerous frames with streaks and you want to combine them into one "streaky" image, you can do that with software, either the StarStax app or an app such as Photoshop that gives you "stacking". The thing is, though, that stars do move, so star "streaking" will show up if you combine multiple images, just like if you have your shutter open for, say, 10 minutes!

In fact, hey, go ahead and play with Bulb mode since you have the cable (and, presumably a good tripod), do a few exposures, one for say 1 minute, 1 for 5, one for 10, and one for 15 minutes, check out the shots and see what you can work with! Be aware that like was said, the longer the exposure the more messy/noisy, so it will take some processing just so you don't get ill from looking at the shots! Heck, one night I did that, because I was trying to get the star trails circling the North Pole, even though I live in a metropolitan area with a lot of light "pollution". Sure, I got star trails, and the longest (15 minute) exposure did a pretty nice job of showing trails as the stars went around, but still it was messy!

solarblast wrote in post #16929037
ML? intervelometer? Did I miss something above?

ML stand for Magic Lantern > http://www.magiclanter​n.fm it's a software witch allow to over pass the Canon 30 seconds restriction and have an intervalometer "build in", Intervalometer is a function also found in the remote.
you can set up how many pictures the camera will take, the interval between pictures, and so on, at the end, you let the camera taking pics during you're sleeping
ML is a free software solution witch work very well, as well as a remote control

Example : you set up the camera to shot 300 pictures of 20 seconds exposure with an interval of 75 seconds between pictures, once the camera start, you have nothing to do, the software or the remote will manage everything until it reach 300 pictures, so you go to sleep during this time and the tomorrow you just have to upload the pics taken during the night on your computer