Observation by Steve Brown: All night star trails

Uploaded by

Steve Brown

Observer

Steve Brown

Observed

2025 Jan 02 - 18:19

Uploaded

2025 Jan 05 - 19:38

Objects

Polaris

Equipment
  • Canon 550D
  • 16mm lens
Exposure

3,985 x 10s exp, 16mm fl, f/2.0, ISO-800

Location

North Yorkshire, UK

Target name

Star trails

Title

All night star trails

About this image

The night of 2-3 January was forecast to be almost totally clear of cloud, so I decided to do an all night star trails shot. I took 3,985 images from 18:19 to 06:49 UT to make this star trails image covering 12 hours 30 minutes of star movement. In reality of course, this is the rotation of the Earth on its axis over that time. In addition to the star trails, the shot contains various flaring satellites and aircraft lights. I used a mains adapter for my camera as a battery would not have lasted that long. I also used a lens heater connected to the mains to prevent the lens fogging up. This is the longest star trails shot I've managed to take to date.

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Comments
Grant Privett
Grant Privett, 2025 Jan 05 - 20:13 UTC

Love it. 

Certainly ran up the shutter count. Here it was -4C that night so the dew heater worked well.

Martin Lewis
Martin Lewis, 2025 Jan 05 - 20:51 UTC

Great perseverance, Steve, and a great job.

Martin

Paul Whitmarsh
Paul Whitmarsh, 2025 Jan 05 - 23:40 UTC

A fabulous image Steve, Nice Job.

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