Seriously Better Second Attempt (Star Trails)

So with some much clearer skies I made a second attempt at star trails. I'm MUCH happier with this version, despite the stupid street lights. This was the best position I could get in my back yard. I have lights everywhere to contend with.

30 second subs again. Rest of the exif is in the border of the image this time.

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nice job Kody! I would maybe try to angle it up a bit more, you'll cut out the fence and the top of the house but you should still get a decent amount of your house and as a bonus should cut out the street light and get even more sky

Kody, those look great! I'm curious what differences you made in your setup this time.

Nice. I think you did much better on your 2nd attempt. Cool shot.

FocalPrincess wrote in post #9532466
Kody, those look great! I'm curious what differences you made in your setup this time.

D, the biggest difference I think is the clouds. There weren't any last night and there were a bunch during my first attempt. Second is the lens/focal length. First try I shot at 28mm and this time it was 17mm. The star trails themselves still have small gaps in them where the shutter closed then had to open for the next image but they're smaller at the wider angle. I might try even wider next time if I can get away from street lights. I think having stable elements in the image makes a difference too. I'm hoping next time I do this I can get stable elements that actually add to the image. We'll see.

Permagrin wrote in post #9533243
Nice. I think you did much better on your 2nd attempt. Cool shot.

Thanks Lisa. I'm enjoying the testing and learning

Nice shot, I like the way the roof gives the sense of looking up.

These must make you much happier Kody!
It looks great, tho, sorry about the streetlamp
Nice Trails!

how many 30sec pics did you have to stitch together? and how long did the shot take overall?

Anke wrote in post #9533309
Nice shot, I like the way the roof gives the sense of looking up.

Thanks Anke

joayne wrote in post #9533700
These must make you much happier Kody!
It looks great, tho, sorry about the streetlamp
Nice Trails!

it's all a learning process. I'm thinking about other places I can shoot so hopefully I'll get some better ones in the coming weeks as the weather allows.

surfnvb7 wrote in post #9534773
how many 30sec pics did you have to stitch together? and how long did the shot take overall?

For this image I shot 101 frames, roughly 50 minutes. I'm thinking about getting a battery grip so I can shoot with multiple batteries for rather long periods of time If I were to do a longer time period though I'd want a better field of view.

theague wrote in post #9535087
If I were to do a longer time period though I'd want a better field of view.

Big improvement over the first attempt. The beauty about shooting star trails is you can just plonk your tripod down any-old-where and, assuming you have enough battery life, shoot for ages, without having to do any alignment or tracking or stuff like that.

I personally never go for longer than 30 or 40 minutes at 18mm or so, simply because the trails can almost look too long sometimes, and it can get unnecessary. I also like to try and get Polaris in my shot, to show how all the other stars seem to circle around it and give more of an idea of the rotational movement of the earth. However, I do like the way you've got a double-curve thing going on in your image.

I'll have to get my dad outside with me so he can show me where Polaris is. I'm no astronomer but he is. I know some constellation names but that's about it. I've seen this in a few other shots and I'm going to try it next time I get out. I've got a spot I want to go try but it looks west so I'm not sure if Polaris will be in that field of view. We'll see

Maybe this is your chance to impress your dad. You know roughly where north is, right ?
Put your tripod at about eye height and point the camera northwards with something you can recognize (tree, building, post) at the bottom of the frame and do a star trail.
Once you've processed it, print it out. The stars will all be rotating around the north pole.
Go and stand in the same place you had your tripod and using your landmark for reference, you'll find Polaris yourself.

Steve