Star Trails & the Milky Way

A few months ago, I was blessed to be able to meet up with a photographer I knew from Instagram who offered to give a free workshop on Star Trails. Of course, I jumped at the chance and Michael drove me up to Noosa for the workshop.

We arrived an hour before sunset to walk to Teatree Bay & set up so we could begin shooting about an hour after sunset. It's important to do star trails on a night with no moon and away from city lights.

Firstly shooting towards the north east, I shot a series of 79 consecutive 30 second exposures. Shooting in this directing gives you a semi circular rain effect.
I did minor editing in Lightroom 4 on each image and then stacked them using a free program called Star Stax.

Look below the headland... the iridescent blue glow on the water is Bio-luminescent Plankton.

Next I shot south (60 x 30 sec exposures) which results in a circular star trail effect. I even managed to capture a couple of shooting stars. Can you spot them??

Next, and just before we left, I took a "Milky Way" shot. A single 15 second exposure facing south.

It was a great night!!

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