Here’s a list of the equipment I use for all night star trail photography:

•Canon 10D (6MP) camera body.

•Tokina 12-24 lens

•tripod

•Canon “Timer Remote Controller” TC-80N3 (absolutely invaluable).

•Canon “DC Coupler DR-400” + “AC Adapter AC-E2” (to now run the camera off of “house

  current” instead of it’s own battery).

•400 watt DC to AC Power Inverter

•portable car “jumper battery” (if you want to set up your equipment “out in the field”, and not just plugged into the side of your house with an extension cord).


  

    I found out early on that the battery Canon supplies with it’s cameras only lasts about 90 minutes outdoors in the winter time. How on earth could I keep a camera running all night long? I’m not technical at all, so I asked someone if there was any way you could run a camera off one of those portable car “jumper batteries”. They said “sure, get a power inverter!” It worked.

   To take the actual photo, I usually start off with a 2 minute exposure at about F4.5 and ISO 400. The wonderful thing about digital photography is that you can see the results instantly and correct them if need be, and with astrophotography it’s no different. Find an exposure and a composition you can live with, set your remote control timer, hit the button, and go to bed! Then just wake up before dawn, hit the button again, stop the camera from taking any more pictures, then start to download them. Here’s what you do with all those pictures to create a digital star trail photo.

 
 

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