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25 minutes exposure of the North Star

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vividphoto

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Awesome! I loved those!

Would you mind posting the EXIF?

Are you near any large cities? I live about 10 miles from St. Louis, Missouri, and I can't seem to take an exposure longer than 10 minutes without too much light pollution showing up. Any thoughts on tihs?
 
byawk said:
Awesome! I loved those!
Click to expand...
Thanks. I thiks it's not the best looking shots I have but it's surely some of the coolest.
byawk said:
Would you mind posting the EXIF?
Click to expand...
You can see the exif if you follow the picture link. I'll post it anyway in a sec.
byawk said:
Are you near any large cities? I live about 10 miles from St.
Louis, Missouri, and I can't seem to take an exposure longer than
10 minutes without too much light pollution showing up. Any
thoughts on tihs?
Click to expand...
I too live near a big city, shots like these are not possible near where I live because of the light pollution. This was taken far away from any city.

I was in the country this weekend and I was hoping for a clear sky and I got it. Very clear, no wind, no coulds, lots and lots of stars. You could clearly see de milky way with the naked eye. This was the perfect occasion to setup my tripod use the bulb mode for the first time.

So unless there is a way to filter light pollution, youl will have to travel a little bit. :) (And hope for a clear sky.)

Note that I did a little bit of post-processing on these. I shot raw, adjusted levels and contrast and removed the noize with NeatImage.

-
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
 
Exif as requested:

First Shot:
1510s f/7.1 at 17.0mm iso100

Second shot:
601s f/8.0 at 17.0mm iso100

Shot on a tripod (duh) with a remote relase with the EF-S 17-85mm IS USM on a 350D.

Shot raw, little post-processing. Noise removed with NeatImage.

--
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
 
Wow, very nice shots. How does 350D allow such long exposures? I own a 300D, does any one know if 300D allows such long exposures (using bulb mode)?
 
I love the first one Alex. This is something I always wanted to try, but I get far too much light pollution where I live. You inspire me to go out in the country just to try and capture the same shot.
--
Allan-UK
EOS 350D-XT+ EOS 20D
Fuji S602Z+TCON-17+TL-FX9 +WL-FX9
All the gear.........No idea.
 
Sorry for the silly question but how did you get the shutter to stay open that long? I know you can set it to bulb and hold it for that long but that does not seem like a option.
Love the pics by the way.
Tom
 
Hello all,

I have taken several shots like this (which I can't post because they aren't hosted anywhere) using the 300D and the canon Remote Capture software. If you take several shots at 30s each, and then stack them together you get the same effect. The more shots...the longer the star trails.

You want to keep the time between shots to a minimum to avoid gaps in the star trails, so I shoot large jpeg and set the time to wait 2 seconds in between shots. In my opinion, saving a RAW takes too long to avoid gaps.
They come out quite well and you don't have to worry about light pollution.

Also, in reference to the previous post, if you use the RS-60E remote shutter release, you can set it to bulb, and then after you press the RS-60E shutter button, you can lock it into place. Then release the lock when you want to close the shutter.
 
Good shots and the main reason for me to buy a Canon ;).

Love the blurry sight of the milky way with some foreground lights too. Obviously these are taken from a darker location than my city balcony ;)

Just this evening I made first starlight with the 350D and one of my telescopes. Still need to process the images and stack them.

Dodi

--
Equipment: camera and lenses
 
Is there any way to have it so that the 300D will automatically take a new picture every 30 seconds, or would I have to press the button every 30 seconds?

Do you think that a neutral density filter might help with the light pollution?
 
Thoff said:
Sorry for the silly question but how did you get the shutter to
stay open that long? I know you can set it to bulb and hold it for
that long but that does not seem like a option.
Click to expand...
Unless you want shake (and finfer cramps) you need the remote shutter controller.

It's a shutter button on a wire basically. I operates just like the shutter button on the camera except that you can lock it open. It will also elimnate the potential shake that you can cause by pressing the button on the camera.
Thoff said:
Love the pics by the way.
Tom
Click to expand...
Thanks!

--
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
 
mewmartigan said:
If you take several shots at 30s each, and then
stack them together you get the same effect. The more shots...the
longer the star trails.
Click to expand...
Neat technique, you need to have a computer connected to the camera however.
mewmartigan said:
They come out quite well and you don't have to worry about light
pollution.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure since I haven't tried this technique, but I think adding shots together will probably cumulate the light polution also.

--
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
 
did u take a black frame after any of those? i have a 300d and used the blackframe technique and it worked quite well the other night. im quite impressed with yours if u havent.
 
Yes, it was on an equatorial mount with tracking.

Hope to be able to process it tonight. The problem I already noticed is that if one exposes long and the stars remain pinpoints, it is easy to loose color in them. But I think I can recover it with processing techniques I use with regular astro cameras.

D.

--
Equipment: camera and lenses
 
No, I didn't take a black frame.

The noise on the original was not bad actually. The picture would have been usable with it. Still, I used NeatImage to remove it for a cleaner look.

Also, taking a 25 minutes picture of noting would not have been a good use of my almost-dead battery that night. :)

--
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
 
This brings up a question I've been wondering about. With P&S digital cameras that use electronic shutters, making long exposures can drain the batteries fairly quickly. Does anyone know whether it's the same for DSLRs like the XT with a mechanical shutter? I haven't taken many time exposures with my XT yet, but I haven't noticed any significant battery drain compared to normal shooting.

--Larry
http://members2.clubphoto.com/larry153908/guest-1.phtml
 
You can get a remote or hand hold the shutter button. I'll be posting an 11.5 minute exposure which I took with my 300D when I get home later today.

Not nearly as good as this, but still fun to do. No tripod either!! You'll have to guess how. :)
 
very interesting to see.
vividphoto said:
Ever since I bought the 350D I wanted to try something like this:

http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise/image/47103561



10 minutes, in another direction:

http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise/image/47103535



Composing the shot was difficult since I couldn't see a thing in
the viewfinder. But I'm satisfied with the results.

Comments, critique, questions, similar shots are all welcome.

--
http://www.pbase.com/alexlahaise
Click to expand...
--



Please do not start new thread for private message to me but send them to me via email instead! thanks.
 
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