Star Trails

I have long had a desire to photograph star trails, but have had difficulty really making it work. I was quite pleased to get these results. These shots are actually in reversed order, but how would you know unless I told you?

The process of taking a star trail is simple in theory and hard to execute in real life. All you need is a sturdy tripod and camera and a shutter release that you can lock and hold the shutter open as long as you want to, the amount of star movement is directly related to how long the shutter is open and where the camera is pointed.

This shot is aimed somewhat east of north, with true north just out of the frame to the left. Which gave me the maximum amount of star movement. I find myself wondering if it would be possible to stitch 2-3 of these guys together and have one photo with both true north and true south in the frame...... hmmm.... (Do click on the photo to enlarge it it is much easier to see the stars that way.)

This was my first shot of the night, the light is coming from a campfire and coleman lantern combination. It was approximately 30 minutes of exposure.