Beginner's guide to using a DSLR camera and/or GoPro for taking star trail photographs

 First visit to this astronomy/astrophotography blog? Well, firstly a warm welcome to you and thanks for stopping by. After reading this post, if you want to find out more about me and this blog, why not visit my introductory page at https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/welcome-to-my-new-astronomyastrophotogr.html  You can also browse other posts by using the search bar or the blog post list on the right hand side and I'd really like to hear from you via the comment boxes. Drop me a tip, an observation or a question. Take care and clear skies to you.  Steve 

The Weather has been pants hasn't it. Everytime there has been a clear night recently, it has always coincided with a full moon; or I have had other pressing family commitments and so haven't been able to get out at night. 

So I am severely curtailing my ambitions for my landscape astrophotography over the next few months. What I would like to walk away with at the end of October is the following:

• a circular star trail landscape photograph of my local church
• similar photo of Windy Cross (A Granite cross and little leat waterfall) on Dartmoor 
• a star trail photo of Rame Head chapel

On the milky way landscape photo front, my ambitions are to obtain by end of October:

• Dartmouth Day mark 
• Start Point Lighthouse
• Rame Head chapel
• Wembury Church
• The Great Mewstone at Wembury Point 
• a better image of Bigbury Island under the milky way alongside one of the huge beach tractor as well

So, to the focus of this blog post. Star trails on a DSLR and/or GoPro. 

Funds are tight. I cannot afford another DSLR body at the moment. My two other cameras are a GoPro Hero 9 and a Sony HX-90 digital compact.  I think the trails will be easier to do on the GoPro, but I am open to that belief being challenged. 

Copyright: Wheal Owles by Simon Torr

So, here are my tips for using your DSLR to gain star trail images:

*source of some information: Peter Zelinka Star Trails tutorial

** I haven't yet shot any star trail images so these are my PLANNED INTENDED settings for future shoots 

Firstly equipment! You will need:

• DSLR
• dummy battery and power bank OR several spare batteries
• Stable tripod with good ball head
• Intervalometer
• wide angle lens - in my case my samyang 14mm. If you want curves - try a 24mm lens, for lines, try 50mm
• Fast SD card - you will need a class 10 UHS class 3 memory card, minimum 32gb - better 64gb

Secondly, what settings do we use? 

1. apply the 300 rule and go for 90% sky coverage in your landscape photo 
2. do one foreground shot at the start or end of your session - so that you can merge it with your stacked star trails in post editing
3. settings:  ISO 1600+ to get lots of stars and dense bright trails; ISO 100 - 800 to get fewer stars and bigger gaps between individual trails with better star colours. In an urban sky - try ISO 400 to 800 at F/4 to F/5.6
4. If light conditions are too bright - reduce ISO and open up the aperture - try F/4
5. shutter speeds - 20 to 30". However, if you use a very low ISO you can increase your shutter speed to 60", 120" or even 180", capturing more light, a cleaner image with less noise and grain. 
6. White balance 3000 - 5200K. I will be probably starting at 3600K. Don't use 'auto'
7. LNR off
8. use an intervalometer. Here it gets tricky. You will either use a 1" delay between your shots or the length of your shutter speed + 1" more. And you need to experiment first before you go out for the night. Peter Zelinka's tutorial really explains it well and you can access it here https://www.peterzelinka.com/startrails
9. I set my intervalometer to take around 3 hrs worth of shots minimum, but that's just me. 
10. set your DSLR to evaluative metering
11. Direction - face north = circles; S = downward arcs; E or W = upward arcs

So what about settings for your GoPro? Mine is a Hero 9

• Night Lapse mode
• FOV - wide
• shutter speed 30" - if in urban environments - then shorten it
• Interval - auto
• ISO 100 - 200 (or 100 min to 800 max)
• If using Protunes - Flat colour and WB of 4000 - 5500K
• shoot in RAW images
• collect 3 - 5 hrs worth of images

Equipment: 

• stable tripod
• spare batteries and/or powerbank and cable
• GoPro camera

Above is an outline of how I go about getting my star trail images. The next step is how to post edit them ad for that I use a program called Starstax.  Having not yet taken any star trails, I won't go into using StarStax until I have used it myself. 

Postscript update:

How am I progressing with star trail imagery?  

I think fair to say, not as well as I might have hoped. 

Here is my first ever star trail shot taken on a motorhome site in Dubrovnik in October 2025. 

So, what's gone wrong?

1. I was shooting on a night with a huge amount of light pollution - bright campsite lighting, rising full moon and light aura from nearby port
2. motorhomes constantly coming and going on the site caused headlight and red brake light reflections in the clouds above 
3. wrong settings in camera - ISO was too high at 800
4. poor processing in starStax - first time I have used it; ditto in Affinity Photo.

Next time: 

1. ensure there is no light pollution
2. choose better settings on camera particular ISO, shutter speed and interval between shots 

Have you got a star trails shot to share with us? Have you got any tips to help us take better star trail photos? What can we do to combat light pollution when doing star trails? 

If so drop us a comment in the box below. 

Until next time, clear skies, have fun and take care out there.