Long Exposures of the night sky...[help]

First try ever using BULB setting - hooked to my laptop via USB using EOS Utility w/ Manual Mode, I love how the pictures came out but I noticed they have this tiny red pixel on them all, I cropped/zoomed/circled one of them to point it out.. Anyone know what this migt be ? I checked some other exposues from a week ago [which are all 30s exposures no remote cap] and they are fine, no spot! C&C on the pics! and some advice on the spot plase.

the spot:

You only have red spots? Must be a fairly new camera. You need some of the blue spots also. You could also use some of the Maltese cross white ones for fun also. THese are hot/cold pixels ( red and blue ). The white crosses are dead pixels. WIth time and age you will see these. The clone tool will be your friend. The spots are tiny enough (pixel size) that they will not degrade your image. Breath deep, take more pics!

Haha I need some blue and white cross! Nice one, but yes it is a brand new rebel XSI. This is normal for all pics or just long exposures?

Have you already ruled out Aliens?

It's more normal for long exposures than all exposures. And you will see more of them in a dark sky than a daylight shot.

Long exposure. You can setup your camera so that it will automagically remove most of noise, dust, etc on long exposures.

61ache wrote in post #6190707
Long exposure. You can setup your camera so that it will automagically remove most of noise, dust, etc on long exposures.

Yeah i think i figured that out not long ago i just decided to review some of the Custom Fn.s in the menu and remembered the high iso noise reduc and long exp noise reduc, i tried it out and it seems flawless now, just takes ten times longer to do like a 30 min exposure lol

out of curiousity... what is the best recommended way to take long exposures of the sky? i'm on auto ISO, F/3.5 , BULB, Auto White Balance.. and set on 18mm, focused all the way out.. would adjusting the white balance possibly make the stars stronger in the picture?

Try ISO 1600, f/3.5, and 20" or 30" and the smallest mm you can zoom to, even less than 18mm if you have it. With long exposures, anything over 30" and you will start to get elongated stars, as you can see in the above shots if you blow them up a bit. AWB should be fine.

I bought a small equatorial mount and motor drive for it for just over $100 for both that will hold my 40D and Tokina 12-24 and when it is set up right, will turn with the rotation of the earth, allowing much longer exposures without streaking. Haven't tried it yet though cause it's been too hazy at night here.