wonky star trail I honored the 2015 Eta Aquariids meter shower with a multi-goal project. 14mm lens on my Canon DSLR, attached to a tracking equatorial mount, imaged from astronomical twilight to astronomical twilight. There were three goals to the project.
1) capture a few meteors (@60 sec exp, ISO 1000, f/2.8, with CLS filter)
2) create a time-lapse video
3) create a star trail.
Here is the special thing with the project, I did not align with the NCP. My backyard zenith view with my 14 mm lens clips trees all the way around, basically there is an opening in the trees when looking up. Aligning with the NCP would be a waste since the view would be blocked by trees most of the night, and just using a standard tripod for a time-lapse is just not that interesting. So, I adjusted the tripod legs to align the mount closer to the zenith. I knew going into it that the moon would rise part way though, so I processed in reverse comet mode to make the moon light effect go away. The trail is not what I was expecting... |