Gundaroo Star Trails
A single image star trail captured over a historic building near Gundaroo in Canberra’s north.
Gundaroo is a beautiful township and countryside just north of Canberra. This great star trail was shot over the old building that today makes up part of a private residence.
This star trail was captured as a single exposure over about 26.5 minutes at a lowish ISO of 640, and an aperture of f/5.6. The long exposure allowed in plenty of light to get great foreground detail, while the low ISO and mid-range aperture ensured the sky was correctly exposed.
Star trails are one form of astro photography that help to tell the story of our place in the universe. As the earth rotates, our terrestrial environment seems to stay still, while the stars appear to rotate around us. Of course, the stars are basically stationary while the earth rotates.
A single tracked star trail like this is a risky shot because if something goes wrong you lose the entire shot, but (IMO) it provides a cleaner image that blending higher-ISO images captured over an extended period of time.
The particular location is in a Bortle Class 4 area, which signifies a place on the border of the suburban / rural fringe. The light pollution in the image is cast from Canberra, and provides a challenge in capturing pleasing night sky images.
View this image in my Photo Gallery, on Vero, Flickr or on Glass.
Image Data
- C: Fujifilm X-T5
- L: Fujinon XF 35mm f 1.4 R
- E: Lightroom
