Star Trail

[dingzyangz]

Recently the sky is quite clear and noticed that the number of stars visible is more than usual. Decided to try capturing star trail of Singapore sky. Turned out to be quite ok.

I am looking forward to comments and critiques on the photo. Is the composition ok? What worked for you in the picture and what did not? How can it be improved?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PyeeL]

Move your frame downwards to see more circular path of the trails?
And the light below.

 

[dingzyangz]

thanks for viewing... will take note.

but sometimes its not really possible to capture all the trails...

Move your frame downwards to see more circular path of the trails?
And the light below.

 

[night86mare]

thanks for viewing... will take note.

but sometimes its not really possible to capture all the trails...

star trails need some reading up if you want to capture seriously -

i cannot remember, because i never have the patience to find a place to capture in singapore, and i will probably not want to go out to a dark place late at night in london until i find a constant, trustable shooting buddy (which seems unlikely).

but i think you have to centre your camera around some constellation. it can be easily found.

i wish the star trails were more circular too, now they look a tad too messy for comfort.

other than that - the angle of the house is not flattering, and the desaturation on it also makes it look like it was cut and pasted into the scene.. was it because of exposure problems?

 

[dingzyangz]

not very likely to capture the entire circular "motion" of the stars in Singapore I guess, we dont have that luxury. but nevertheless i hope i can find better spots to do so too.

the building was composed in such a way that i could capture more of the sky. indeed its quite a weird angle. kind of look cut and paste now that u mentioned it... :bsmilie:

thanks for viewing..

star trails need some reading up if you want to capture seriously -

i cannot remember, because i never have the patience to find a place to capture in singapore, and i will probably not want to go out to a dark place late at night in london until i find a constant, trustable shooting buddy (which seems unlikely).

but i think you have to centre your camera around some constellation. it can be easily found.

i wish the star trails were more circular too, now they look a tad too messy for comfort.

other than that - the angle of the house is not flattering, and the desaturation on it also makes it look like it was cut and pasted into the scene.. was it because of exposure problems?

 

[kkcharles82]

To the rest of the community hat is not very familiar with astrophotography, Singapore being at te equator will prevent us from seeing either of the celestial poles. Therefore we can only get a cropped circle, though it is possible that Dingzyangz can zoom out a little to give a bigger picture. But there is another problem of light pollution. Our horizons and seas are filled with lighted ships and industrial areas. Shooting star trails requires much more than 30s of exposure time. In fact, star trails requires up to 300s to even 600s exposure timing. One would have to put ND filters, set to F5.6 and ISO200 to compensate for the very bright, light polluted sky in Singapore.

 

[dingzyangz]

thanks charles for the detailed explanation.

To the rest of the community hat is not very familiar with astrophotography, Singapore being at te equator will prevent us from seeing either of the celestial poles. Therefore we can only get a cropped circle, though it is possible that Dingzyangz can zoom out a little to give a bigger picture. But there is another problem of light pollution. Our horizons and seas are filled with lighted ships and industrial areas. Shooting star trails requires much more than 30s of exposure time. In fact, star trails requires up to 300s to even 600s exposure timing. One would have to put ND filters, set to F5.6 and ISO200 to compensate for the very bright, light polluted sky in Singapore.

 

[stype]

hello dingzyangz. great effort. i personally had always wanted to take pictures of star trails but i never thought that it will be possible or practical to be doing it here in sg. would u mind sharing with us where exactly was this shot taken?

 

[dingzyangz]

thanks for the compliment stype.
location wise it was at bukit timah area... somewhere near Eng Kong Garden where there are some old buildings (now mostly used to house foreign students). But the location wasn't really that ideal as the stars do not form a circular path (stars will revolve around the north star). Not sure if such a location is possible in singapore and with a good foreground. It really depends on the sky.

But for this picture, it was achieved using 60 pictures each with 1min exposure and then stacked together using an downloaded actionscript for photoshop from the net.

hello dingzyangz. great effort. i personally had always wanted to take pictures of star trails but i never thought that it will be possible or practical to be doing it here in sg. would u mind sharing with us where exactly was this shot taken?