Nice shots, especially the second attempt. I like a little sky-glow or light-pollution in my trails, but the first had a little too much perhaps. I also prefer such shots at wider angles, and if it can include the celestial pole then all the better, as it shows the point around which all the stars are rotating.
I've used Photoshop Elements to stack trails images, but only two or three images. However, the effect should be the same for many images, I assume.
Let's see...I do a File/Open on all the images I want to stack, and they appear in a line along the bottom. (Sorry about my non-technical jargon, I've had Elements a long time, but don't really know how to use it that much!). I then drag each image from the bottom and drop it in the main editing window, on top of the first image I opened. This creates new layers, each layer containing a separate image. Going to the layers section on the right of the screen, I then select each one and change the Opacity to 50%, so that all images become visible in the main window.
(I'm assuming here that you set all to 50%...it might be that I have in fact only ever stacked 2 images, so they had to be 50% each. It might be that with three images they have to be 33%, with four they have to be 25%, etc, etc. I'm sure someone can correct me.)
Anyway, just give it a go and see what happens. I'd still expose for a good 2 or 3 minutes minimum for each image, to get enough light into the camera and to bring out any dark objects, like trees or the house.
