Star Trail Photography in Africa

I have wondered about how to make interesting night photographs for a long time. In the 1970s, using my Canon AE-1 camera and a tripod, I took some time lapse photos of traffic moving along our street in Staten Island, NY, by holding a shutter release open for 45 or 60 seconds. The resulting photograph shows a mix of bright headlights and red brake lights plus the traffic lights are illuminated in all three colors simultaneously, basically a blur of traffic which was my goal.

With the new digital cameras things are a bit different. You can avoid the manual aspect by buying a relatively inexpensive camera shutter release that can be locked open for long exposure photography. Before leaving India, I read and printed some instructions on how to take a star trail photo. Basically, since the Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours, the star field that we see can see at night rotates around the polar axis in a complete circle. Here in the Southern Hemisphere, it rotates around the “Southern Cross” (and no, I never heard of that before either.) Of course, the stars don’t move much but it’s the earth’s movement that makes it appear that way.

I began thinking that being out in the middle of nowhere; there might be a few stars visible that you don’t usually see. I remember the amazing sight of the quantity of stars and shooting stars I saw in the night sky in 2006 when I slept on the Great Wall of China. Well, this was a good thought, there are literally, a bazillion stars out every clear night. Couple that with an inability to sleep due to being overheated, and you have a person looking for some way to occupy their time for a few hours. The star trail photos I have attempted so far range in exposure time between 25 minutes and 2½ hours. As you might expect, my skill has improved as my experience has grown and I have figured a few things out. Later in the trip, when there are wild animals near our camp, this may not be possible.

This would certainly make a city boy more interested in Astronomy, if I could see this much every day...

The first attempt, maybe a 25 minute exposure...



The 2nd attempt; just the stars moving...



The 4th attempt, you can tell it's a longer exposure because the trails are longer...



The last attempt, #7, a two hour exposure, with the best outcome so far...



Remember, anyone with a Digital SLR can do this, just read up on it, find a place away from city lights and go on a night when you're having insomnia.