Star Trail Astrophotography Canon 40D and Canon 60Da

Eppur si muove (And yet it moves).

Galileo Galilei

Star trails - Astrophotography. The north celestial pole is at the center of all the star trails. Polaris is the bright star near the pole. New York state Catskill mountains.

6 images - 10 min each, Fixed Tripod , ISO 1600 F3.5, Canon 40D, Lens EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. All of these short exposures together in StarStax. 

Star Trails Canon 40D. 6 images 10 min each, Stack in StarStax. Photohop: Levels, Curve, Shadow Filter Color, Un-sharp mask, Despeckle

Color Star Trails, Canon 40D, Total Time about 1 hour, Stack in StarStax

Canon 60Da, Canon Lens EF 16 35mm f2.8L II U, Fixed Tripod, Dew Heater, 39 images - Exposure time 2 min , ISO 400, Aperture F4.0. Post-processing: StarStax and Photoshop.

Star Trail Astrophotography Canon 60Da - Catskills

Canon 60Da Star Trail Astrophotography

Star Trails - Canon 60Da, Canon Lens EF 16 35mm f2.8L II U, Fixed Tripod, Dew Heater, 37 images - Exposure time 2 min , ISO 400, Aperture F4.0. Post-processing: StarStax and Photoshop, Star Spikes filter

Canon 60Da Star Trail Astrophotography - Upstate New York

For last image I used the Star Spikes filter.

StarSpikes Pro for Startrails

StarStax - Startrails

 From image easy to see that stars have counterclockwise direction of rotation. Our watch hands do not follow the star rotation direction; its follow the rotation direction of shadow of Sun. The shadow has the opposite direction to sky rotation. Even simple astro photo has a lot staff behind the scenes. This is why I like astrophotography.

Grand Teton Astrophotography Wyoming National Park

Philosophy is written in that great book which
ever lies before our eyes — I mean the universe
— but we cannot understand it if we do not first
learn the language and grasp the symbols,
in which it is written.
--Galileo Galilei

Milky way over Grand Teton National park. There is combination of three photos.

Grand Teton Astrophotography  Wyoming National Park Canon 60Da

Canon 60Da; Lens EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM; Exposure 30.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 4000

Two interesting effect are visible on this photo. If sky stars don't have big trails, reflections of stars have pretty much visible "star roads". Actually every star reflection has its own "star path" like Moon reflection has moonpath. When stars more close to horizon than "star path" of reflection is longer. Reflection stars near horizon also looks brighter because of near horizon light from starts more parallel to water surface and has bigger reflectivity. 

M42 Orion Nebula using iOptron SkyTracker in NYC

This is my first test of iOptron SkyTracker. Orion Nebula M42 is in the list of top 10 deep sky objects for amateur astronomers. So I choose it for first test. I tried exposer 15 seconds. For fixed tripod with Canon Telephoto Lens EF 200mm f2.8 L II USM it gives star trails. With iOptron SkyTracker even without precise alignment stars looks like points. Weather was good but NYC light pollution, plus it was 3 / 4 Moon near Orion nebula. So I use small ISO (Urban astrophotography). There are results:

M42 Orion Nebula one single file from NY City

Canon 60Da, Canon  EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Telephoto Lens, Exposure 15 sec; f/2.8; ISO 320, New York City

Using DeepSkyStacker stacked multiple images. Every Canon Row CR2 image first updated in Canon Row 7 saved as Tiff file and later stacked in DeepSkyStacker. Post processing after that was done in Photoshop.

Orion Nebula M42 from New York City Backyard - 8 photos iOptron SkyTracker Canon 60Da

Canon 60Da, Canon  EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Telephoto Lens;  f/2.8; ISO 320; Exposure 15sec x 8 - Total time 2 min, New York City

M42 Orion Nebula NYC 36 photos iOptron SkyTracker Canon 60da Canon 200mm

Canon 60Da, Canon  EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Telephoto Lens;  f/2.8; ISO 320; Exposure 15sec x 36 - Total time 9 min, New York City, Messier 42 or NGC 1976

iOptron SkyTracker Canon 60Da Orion Nebula M42 Astrophotography 204 photos

 Canon 60Da, Canon  EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Telephoto Lens;  f/2.8; ISO 320; Exposure 15sec x 204 - Total 51 min

Top 10 amateur astrophotography targets

There is my list of top 10 objects for beginners in astrophotography

1.    Milky Way
2.    Northern Lights and airglow and bioluminescence
3.    Star trails and/or photography of meteor shower
4.    Zodiacal Light
5.    Moon
6.    Sun
7.    Saturn
8.    Jupiter
9.    Solar Eclipse
10.   Lunar Eclipse

Milky Way View From Earth - Yellowstone

Night Scape Astrophotography Award Astronomyforum.net 3rd Quarter 2014

StarTalk radio chose my photo - Grand Teton Milky Way

Universe Today posted my image Yellowstone Astrophotography

Yellowstone Astrophotography photo was couple of days in Google News

NYC Solar eclipse photo was chosen by Yahoo news as Best-of Flickr week photo