I took some time out to experiment with Star Trail photography. There are primarily two methods for capturing star trails; holding the shutter open for the duration or taking 30 sec exposures and stacking the images post production. I utilised the stacking option for a couple of reasons; to reduce noise and prevent the sensor from overheating. Both methods require up to an hour or more to capture enough movement to ‘see’ star movement. These photos were taken pointing towards the Southern Stellar Polar axis, unlike the northern hemisphere there isn’t a polar star in the south but there are ways to determine it using the Crux (Southern Cross) constellation.

Here are a couple of the stacked results (50 images each exposed for 30 sec):

Post processing was completed utilising the freeware software “Startrails” that stacks the images into a single shot and also can create a time lapse video.

Cheers

Gary