All photogs if you havent already tried you have got to get into this! I just started today and these are the results…all single exposure shots…gonna try again tomorrow and get better ones! EXIF info should still be intact but the exposure times are around 9-13 minutes!!!
By the way, it eats like 1 percent of my battery life every minute your shutter is open…I put a new batt into my camera before starting…the Nikon D80 shows battery life in percentage…my shot count on the new batt is 10, and the battery life is already down to 50%
…SO WORTH IT!
great shots!
if you want to get serious in shooting stars with a dslr, you’ll need to get a main power adapter…
actually dslr is not the ideal camera type for taking such long exposure shots. mechanical film slr’s are better for star trail shots. no battery required to keep shutter open - you can take exposures that last hours, creating really impressive star trail photos.
look at your images and you’ll notice the purple heat bloom on the two left hand corners - this phenomenon is better control in canon dslr. canon CMOS sensors also produce lower sensor noise at high ISO and long exposure. that’s why astrophotographers mostly choose canon if they use dslr… 
well, I got 3 batteries so thats a start…
ohh…so thats what they mean canon has better control in their CMOS sensors…This is the first time I ever seen it so clearly…as for noise at high ISOs I have to disagree with you since nikon introduced their new line up…even with the canons on par with my D80 I cant see the difference in noise levels…so I turned my high ISO noise reduction off altogether! besides, if I really need to there are plenty of software out there which can minimize it…wouldn’t dream of changing to canon anytime soon…will give this a go with my sisters canon dSLR though…
I was thinking of going into a field and shoot a looooooong silhouette so I can keep my shutter open for a long time or doing what a lot of people do by shooting many frames that arent as long then making a composite which looks pretty awesome…whatcha think?
Nikon all the way! Woot!
i think nikon also going for CMOS in their new models… and yeah, i heard the high ISO noise is also reduced, but unless yours in CMOS it’s still going to be higher than EOS. it’s just a constraint of CCD technology.
i’m not saying canon is better than nikon. nikon might be better in other areas. but when it comes to shooting stars and nightskies, it’s accepted as undisputable truth that canon is better. for the moment at least.
yes, to use dslr to shoot long star trail photos, you will need to make multiple exposures and combine them afterward. electronic sensors get hot and noise increases with long exposure. that’s a technical constraint that is not overcome yet at the moment.
if you are interested, may be we can organise shooting sessions to dark sky places together… it’s safer too…
disclaimer - i’m a canon user, because i shoot stars
lasting, thanks for the info
but one question: have you tried shooting astrophotograph using dslr, or any ccd based digital imager?
if you have, you must know why astrophotographers use cooled ccd sensors for long exposures.
btw, i wasn’t referring to the obvious skyglow around the houses but the two purple glows in the top left and bottom left corners.
as you suggested, the internet is a great source of info. why don’t you try google for astrophotography using nikon dslr and see what you’ll come across?
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ah, finally update from you, hyperactive. if i were you i prefer to do it with SLR + film. save battery. yet DSLR is handy in term of preview.