Star City
by Rodney Campbell on Feb.23, 2023, under Photography
Star City
NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S @ 85 mm, 15 sec at f/1.8, ISO 64 x 784 Frames
Well call me “surprised”. I’m actually pretty stunned this worked. Given the astro unfriendly conditions I was shooting in
As mentioned in my previous post I’d decided to try shooting Star trails… From my bathroom window :). Pointing towards the Chatswood CBD city skyline
I setup my tripod at the window with a lens I’d never used for Astro before (the Nikkor Z 85/1.8). Shooting wide open at f/1.8
I was also shooting at the camera’s base ISO of 64. Normally I’d be shooting star trails at a ISO of somewhere in the 400 to 1600 range. However the light pollution was WAY to bright for that
This was the main reason why I was expecting this to end up being a fail. Having to shoot with such a low exposure (ISO)
I started shooting at 9:10PM (the end of astronomical twilight – Sunset was way back at 7:44PM). I just let the camera run till the battery let out and went to bed. This resulted in 1009 x 15 second frames shot. Finishing at 1:42M (four and a half hours later). Which I thought was actually surprisingly good for the mirrorless Z7 camera
I was only able to use the first 784 frames for the final star trails. Some clouds came through at various times (mostly just at the bottom as you can see here). After the 784 mark some very heavy cloud cover came through obscuring the entire sky
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