Star Trails

I did a little star photography experimentation back in 2018 and really need to do a bit more. It involves odd hours and a lot of time on the camera and computer. I hope to have a little more time now that I'm fully retired. This photo is a composite of 22 photos over an 88 minute time period. Each photo was exposed for 4 minutes. My tripod was set up on my driveway looking North. You can see the eave of our house in the lower left of the photo. You can see the North Star in the lower center of the concentric circles. It is the bright star with a very short trail. Our North Pole does not point directly at the North Star and this photo clearly shows that. This photo also shows the HUGE number of stars in our sky - and these are only the bright ones that the camera picks up. Many of these stars are hardly visible to the eye while taking the photos.

I sometimes think of this type photo as our universe's LP album. I wonder what it is playing! Yes, I'm old....

Sadly, I'm betting I can't fully duplicate this photo today. The large increase in satellites will likely pollute the sky with straight trails. Airplanes can also contaminate this type photo but they are a bit easier to edit out if needed. I will have to give it another try one day.

Editing these photos is a challenge. The actual sky color was more of a light yellow haze from all of the city lights. I added the blue background to match my taste. The more correct color representation is shown below. It shows more of the variation in star colors.

Thanks,

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