Star Trails - first attempt

[fazz81]

Morning all,

Had my first go at taking star trails last night, so thought I would share.

The camera was only roughly polar aligned, so was quite pleased that the pole star showed hardly any movement.

It was only a 5 min exposure, as I had been out all night testing other camera settings and was freezing. Will try a longer one soon. But I think you can see the stars at the edge of the picture have a lot more movement than the inner ones.

I was also pleased with the amount of stars showing up, as with the naked eye could only detect about 10 or so in that area.

[chim_knee]

Wow, that's great. The pole star is really central isn't it!

[fazz81]

Must say I was amazed as I had just lined it up peering throught the view finder.

Going to get a piggy back mount for my telescope soon, so will be able to align it like that all the time!

Cheers

[YarisSi]

How do you get it so the pole star is perfect. Is it just a matter of sticking it in middle of view finder and click? I'm probably being thick?

[fazz81]

yep..thats pretty much it.
like I said, think I was lucky to get it so central by this method, a longer exposure may show it start to move.

[Frik]

Nice pic.

What scope have you got?

[fazz81]

Thanks.

Its an Orion Europa 8" f4.

Just got my T-ring to attach the D70 to it, hopefully this wind will drop so I can get out tonight.

[Phil S]

Blimey, what on earth do you do whilst waiting for a 5 minute exposure?!

[fazz81]

I can handle five mins, have a leek, have a fag etc..

not sure how i'm going to fill the 30-60 min ones, might pop to the pub!