Herstmonceux star trails

[Kenny]

Rachel and I drove down to Herstmonceux Science Observatory Centre yesterday evening for "Museums At Night: Cheese, Wine & Astronauts" with a presentation by Robin Mobbs about the ISS, space science and the iminent return of Tim Peake to planet Earth. An amazing night overall. We skipped the evening observing and tours in the domes, having done that there before, to do some astrophotography from the carpark outside.

Here are some of my resuts.

Star trail taken outside Dome E at Herstmonceux Science & Observatory Centre. I only had time to do a 12 shot sequence and then during processing discovered issues, as you will see below, which affected how I combined them i.e. the dome was in use for observing and occassionally rotated, blurring the foreground.

Canon 450D DSLR with a Sigma DC 18-200mm lens set to 18mm. ISO200, f/3.5, 2 minute exposure. Sequence blended in Startrails. Minor processing in Lightroom to darken the resulting images to be closer to the original exposures.

Let me know your favourite shot/shots.

Herstmonceux Dome E startrail (1 x 2 minute sub):
1 shot from the 12 shot sequence. This frame is particularly nice because of the positioning of the very bright plane flying overhead.


Herstmonceux Dome E startrail  (3 x 2 minute subs where the dome didn't move):


Herstmonceux Dome E startrail  (6 x 2 minute subs where the dome didn't move):


Herstmonceux Dome E startrail  (all 12 subs):


These shots could be characterised as a quick & dirty process. I suggest you don't look at the images too closely as there are wing lights from at least 2 other airplanes plus far too many hot/dead pixels. I'd also like to experiment to see whether I can get the full sequence without the dome rotation.

I'm pleased overall with the results though.

[Carole]

VERY nice images Kenny, lovely composition and colour.

Carole

[RobertM]

I'd say they were pretty good Kenny,  as Carole says, good composition and colour.  Re. the plane - you could always say the streak was a sighting laser from the dome

Robert

[RachelC]

Wow Kenny, your photos have come up brilliantly! Much better than my scrappy effort but then that could have been due to the wine I had consumed.

The colour on the dome from the red light is beautiful. And the dome is so clear...

[MarkS]

That's a really beautiful result Kenny!  The dome provides a perfect foreground.

Mark

[Fay]

very classical arrangement, Kenny,anyone who is anyone, always has a dome in the image!

Fay

[ApophisAstros]

Top quality as usual Kenny,

Roger

[The Thing]

I like these Kenny, Herstmonceux is one of my favourite places and you've captured the essence perfectly. At first the plane looked to me like a laser from the Geodesy centre just down the drive but on closer inspection there are blinking bits :}

[julian]

Very nice Kenny

[Jonathan]

Really nice Kenny! I would like to give star trails a go one day.

[Kenny]

Thanks for all the great comments everyone. Really appreciated.