Star trails
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And I have always loved when I see great photos of the Milky Way or Star trails especially the circular ones, and let me say right from the start these are not great ones, but my recent attempts at getting star trail shots
Let me start with the best one I have got so far and then talk about how I do this
Go Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
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As I said my Best is not what I was hoping for which would have more Star trails and some object in the foreground such as the Lighthouse in the location where I took this first one, but I learnt a lighthouse is not good to use as a subject for these shots because of cause it generates light, and light pollution is what makes getting star trails or seeing the Milky way challenging.
What is light pollution you may ask, well simply put its the light we humans generate, and to get good shots of the Milky Way you need to be well away from any man made light.
I did try a few locations around here and got a couple of shots that I am somewhat happy with, the first one above and the last one in this post.
I found this website dark site finder which maps out light pollution around the world and to be honest I was shocked how few spots there are good for night shots with little or no light pollution, the closest one to where I live is I think called Cherry State Park in Pennsylvania about 8 hours from where I live, so now its on my list of places to head for a couple of days away maybe next year I will get there
Ok this next shot was one of my early tries, and trust me I did many tries, this one I just wanted to see how the Gopro I recently bought handled shots like these and to test options for merging the photos to make star trails.
To give you an idea of taking these type of shots, for this next one it is I think around 300 photos taken on the go pro over a 40 Minute period, the GoPRo has a night lapse mode, so once you decide which settings to use, you click the shutter button and away it goes, and you wait patiently for as long as you want to take photos, in this case it was about 40 Minutes, so I walked the beach with my other tripod and camera getting steps in and taking photos
This was at Jones Beach in Dartmouth MA
Go Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
Click here to view larger
So haven't learnt a bit I had another go, adjusting the settings in Buttonwood park, which was a total failure and hence no photos, I clearly had done the settings wrong so walked in the dark for over an hour and the gopro only took I think 9 Photos so nothing to share of that attempt
Now it needs to be dark, so for the morning times I tried these I was getting to the spot by 4:40 AM ish and it was fairly cool, then I had the bright idea to try in my backyard in the night I knew the light would be an issue, but more to play with different setting son the gopro
Now I mentioned these are between 100 and 300 individual photos merged to make the star trails, I tried two piece of software for merging them, Adobe Photoshop which I have a subscription for, and a free software Starstax which I had used before
Go Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
Click here to view larger
I quite like how that came out and decided to try it in Mono which is the next shot
Go Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
Click here to view larger
Now you may notice that in the first post the trails were in straight lines and now in other shots there curved, that's achieved by aiming your camera at Polaris which is at the end of Ursa Minor also known as the Little dipper, if you aim at this in the Northern Hemisphere all the other stars rotate around it to get the circular trails
this next shot is back at Jones beach
SGo Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
Click here to view larger
I discovered that I wasn't using starstax properly, your meant to take a couple of dark shots first by covering the lens on the camera, I had not done that so I just adjusting the curves on a couple of my first shots to make fake dark shots, if you do that and add them as dark image sin StarStax you can turn on a feature called gap filling which fills in the curves a little which is what I did for the next and last shot of this post
Go Pro Hero 9 Black Night Lapse
Click here to view larger
And that sums up all my attempts, I think in total I spent maybe 7 or 8 hours out in the very early morning dark with these attempts, and now know the settings I need to use, but my next attempt will be when I get to Pennsylvania and can visit the park to try again, if I do get to a darker area, I may be able to see and shoot the Milky Way and also get some star trail shots with more stars visible and hence more and fuller circles, but it has been fun trying these
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I had absolutely no idea that GoPros are capable of night photography. Impressed!! Sounds like a lot of effort went into these shots. Hope that you have a good shoot in Pennsylvania!
Yeah its pretty impressive what such a small thing can do, Pennsylvania will hopefully be next year
Cherry Springs is definitely awesome. I can personally vouch for it! If/when you do begin planning to go, I highly suggest looking for a date where there is a New Moon, so that even the moon won't be a light source. It's fantastic.
Part of me wants to say that using the GoPro like that is almost cheating, but another part of me appreciates using the technology we have to the best of its advantages. 😂 Regardless, the pictures turned out great! And that's the ultimate goal.
Yes thats a good point, a new moon is key as well, and yes and no to the gopro being like cheating i kind of feel the same, but then again I justify it to myself in that I am setting the settings myself and have it in photo mode and do the editing myself.
the main reason I got it, is I could and have used my Sony to take the shots, but it and the lens are way more value than the gopro and I would feel the need to stay close to it, using he gopro I set it up get it started and stroll around taking other shots with my Sony for the hour it is working away
Those are some really good points! I would not want to leave any of my cameras even slightly unattended for too long, either. And that is a neat way to get to multitask with the gopro.
A big part of getting out in the morning for me as well as taking photos is to get some steps in and exercise, I need to loose some weight, plus standing and waiting patiently for the gopro is not something I could do I hate standing I need to walk LOL
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Star trails are really cool. Good for you on having the patience to be out there for hours.
Thanks, patience is not my strong suit I like walking, luckily with these I could start the gopro taking the photos and walk around with my Sony camera
These shots are a lot better than the last ones and I like the second photo most - it looks like an attack from space 👽 or a meteor shower 😀
Now I am really curious on your next try JJ, because all the knowledge about astro photography you are providing in this post let me believe you are gonna do it again soon and don't want to wait for Pennsylvania 😉
Maybe you should give the Sony a chance to prove it's better than a GoPro 😁
Have a great Sunday mate 🌞
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LOL I keep telling myself I will wait for somewhere better next year, but I think you know me well it is still in the back of my mind to try again and with the Sony LOL
I was thinking with it getting cooler i may not want to walk so much so I could set it up and get it started and sit in the car nice and warm while it does its thing LOL
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I knew it 😁
As far as I remember you have quite fast lenses, so the Milky Way or star trails should be easily possible - even my Canon could do it with another user 🤣
Sitting in the warm car and let the camera work is indeed a great idea, but don't fall asleep because the camera might change its owner 😉
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Ohh no for sure I wouldn’t let myself fall asleep I would have eyes wide open watching my camera
👀 😁
You could also print a "Canon" sticker and put it on the camera - then nobody will think of stealing it 😆
Lmao 🤣
Brilliant idea
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This was too complicated a process besides needs professional lenses. However, the end result is fascinating.
Yeah it is a bit of a process but was fun to try
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Every one of those are great including your first try! It's well worth the time :)
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Kind of like a meteor shower in one of them and I saw I'm not the only one who thought so.
Yes indeed that effect is cool
It is a good investment of time to learn such skill. Can't wait for next piece of master piece?
Thanks it may be a while till I try this again
Beautiful photos.
Thanks kindly your support is appreciated
Have a great day
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To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Light pollution is a problem, some places are starting to learn how easy and effective it is to eliminate most of it at little to no cost. Sad people are not listening.
Back to your photography, you have done pretty well after a short period of time, some years ago when loadshedding (still having power outs) happened we were in a remote town, with everything going dark one could feel you could touch the stars above. Alas I tried to capture photographs which was a total fail.
Hope you make it out to the mountain, I seem to think it may be one where they are giving advice about the light pollution problem we all enduring.
Yes there are ways light pollution can be reduced but as you say no one is really interested
These were fun to do
Good start into another learning, interesting to hear what software you used as well.
These shots look like they were taken in another planet, with the flying stars taking over the sky. What could be more intriguing on a Sunday?
Beautiful post of the emerging stars.
@dreemport led me here.
Thanks so much
Have a great day
And so I learn something new every time I read one of your posts.
It's good for me to start taking note of this, but it is still way above my abilities...lol!
I know you say these are some of your attempts, but to me, it looks awesome!
Got here via @dreemport.
Thanks that’s so kind of you to say
This is really fantastic to think you can get those shots with the setting on your camera. The night sky truly does look at stars gone awry or something is happening in the galaxy to throw them into chaos.
Thanks for sharing.
Read through @dreemport
Thanks these were a lot of work to do but fun
Have a great day