I was out taking some pictures a few nights ago and took this as an afterthought as I was leaving to go home and thought some of you might enjoy it. Hope you like it!

Hi Si,
Long time no speak!

Beautiful picture

Nice pic - were you out doing astrophotography?

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GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

Space cadet!

Once apon a time in a galaxy far, far away

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away...

I used to have those rims.

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Hi Guys, yes I'm still around and yes I was out taking pictures of the Miky Way! I got some good images but I thought you might like this one in particular. Hope to see you guys some time this year as may be my last chance as when I've sold my houses I'm off to Portugal. I wonder if I will be able to find a Four over there as I cant take my JDM with me.

thats a good idea actually, might have to take the four out one night, looooong exposure, 100 iso and see what we can get.

Nice idea, good stuff

Strontium, does your car happen to have decals on the side reading "CELICA - emotional and sharp dynamism" ?

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Hi Dale, this image was at F3.5 Iso 3200 and pushed the exposure to around 60 secs, which is why it's grainy (noise) and you can see the begginings of star trails.

Lorro, it does!

Cool. Looks like our cars were both given the same finishes... Decals, paint and wheels. I wonder if it was the same dealership in Japan or some kind of special order? That said, I ditched the wheels, and removed the 'emotional and sharp ' Gubbins.

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Yeah not too bad noise for 3200, what camera and lens did you use?

Can see its a fair old exposure because of the trails like you say, might have to take mine out and take the tripod and leave her on 100 and a silly long release to get some nice trails and no noise.

Looks bob on though.

@Dale: Nikon D80 with a 18-70mm nikkor AFS @18mm. For star trails I'd use an ISO of 1600 and 30sec expsures and for ease shoot Jpegs unless you really want to convert 300 images. If you have a digital timer then just set it to run continuouasly and fill ther card up (or at least take 2-300 images) then stack the images in software like http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html as it's easier and quicker than stacking them in CS6. Leave noise reduction off, any noise will only add to the image but surpressing it will likely look worse.

Find somethig with a nice shape to silouetee in the frame and if you want to bring the foreground up, shine a torch at it for about 1/4 of a sec. on one of the frames and use the software to sort it all out. You'll need to experiment with that though to get the best shots/balance.

Obviously, find the darkest, least light polluted site you can to take your images and at this time of year wait untill about 11.30-12.00 to start taking your images.

Hope that helps and good luck and show me your results!

Why do you use use such a high iso

I know the stitching will average out sensor noise but I would think you'd get better blacks using a low iso and longer exposure

It's because you reveal many more stars thast way that you won't get at much lower ISO's. You then, or I would, tweak it in Paint shop using levels and gamma etc. Not star trails but another 30sec exposure with light painting with a Cree led torch! You may have seen this place before, any guesses where it is?

DP