Star Trails any helpful hints?

[kgreen]

I haven't done any star trails for a while & wanted to play around tonight. Do you have any tips to share, so I can get a quick refresher? From my notes last time I tried shooting star trails, here's what I had in my notes.

*Aperture F4 or the lowest you can go
*ISO: 1600
*Take a test shot, zoom in & make sure the stars are tack sharp.
*Take a dark frame shot, for 30 seconds. When you run it thru software later you can delete the frame. But it will help create noise free images on the rest of the pictures for the series.
*Now select continuous shooting
*Remote shutter, use the slider for a continuous shot every 30 seconds.
*Watch for condensation on the lens, & clouds

*Tripod
*Manual mode/manual focus & turn off VR/auto focus on camera & lens
*Shutter 30 seconds

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Pixel Dust]

I haven't tried it yet. But, I did come across this tutorial in hopes of getting a chance. I live too close to bright lights.
http://www.slrlounge.com/shoot-for-the-stars-a-star-trail-tutorial-from-tony-northrup/

Also, turn off any processing; noise reduction, distortion correction, vignette compensation, D-lighting (Nikon), sharpening, etc. Any of those may cause a delay to take the next shot while it finishes processing, and would cause a gap in the trails.