Hello,
Star trails are not something I do a lot of. But this is what I would consider my best attempt to date for a star trail photo. I originally took over 400 photos over the course of 2 1/2 hours however my older computer was unable to handle that many photos. So this is made up of around 250 of those 400ish photos. I was also able to point my camera towards Polaris giving me my favorite circle pattern in the stars. Would love to know what you think and would like any advice you have to try for next time?
The biggest problem I had was I was shooting next to our camp fire which put a bad bright glow on the trees to the left on my final star trail photo. I had some trouble masking back in the clean foreground photo but I think I did a decent job of it. Let me know what you think.
I have wanted to attempt star trails but almost all information I have read states you need an autoguider.
I can see how you would need one for a "fixed" object to counter the Earth's rotation, but for star trails is it really necessary?
You image is much better at Full Size as the reflection is easier to see!
I don't think you need a guider for star trails since you want the motion of the stars anyway. All I used was my camera and a tripod obviously. I think the guiders are mostly for like Milkyway shots where you maybe stacking several photos to reduce noise. And I know they are used for serious astrophotography like shooting far away stars and such. You have to do such long exposures that you need the guider while it's still taking an exposure if I understand it correctly. But for star trails all you really need is a camera and a subject in my opinion.
No need for a tracker unless its milkyway. Just point that bit*h north and fire away lol