Joe Gilhooley LRPS   Star Trails at Preston Mill with Northern Lights   Thursday 10th February 2022 . I have attempted star trails photography a few times. This time the almost 3/4 moon was bright in the clear night sky. Shining onto the Mill from behind me. Gave lovely light onto Preston Mill, East Lothian, Scotland, whilst I took a series of images of night sky to get star trails. Here are the results of my evening photographing the night sky and star trails. The stars appear to circluate anti clockwise rotating around the north star as the Earth rotates. The big bonus was. About 10.22pm the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) made an appearance over the mill for a few minutes. I kept on with the star trails photography. When I got home at 1.30am, I was delighted to find I had captured the reds and greens of the Northern Lights. I was using a Canon 1dx MkII Camera. Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L MKII USM Lens. Sturdy Manfrotto tripod and tripod head. Pixel Pawn wireless shutter release so I was not touching the camera. For the image with The Northern Lights. I took 100 one minute images. All one minute in length. Right after each other. For the second image without The Northern Lights. I added a Kase Neutral Night Filter to the lens as an expertiment and took 90 one minute images. During the last one minute exposure. I shone a small torch beam onto the Mill. I created this as a separate image. It was nearly three hours to get two star trails images. I was shooting the camera and lens at f2.8. Bulb mode. One minute exposures. ISO 125. White balance set at 4000 kelvin setting. By the time I had taken over 200 images, it was after 1am. The night air temperature was then minus. I packed up as frost was setting on the lens front. Scraping the ice and frost of my car windscreen before I drove off. So glad I decided to go out for Star Trails photography and getting the bonus of the Northern Lights. The series of images blended together in Photoshop Elements. I have made the images on this webpage a bit larger size than I normally do. So that visitors can see better the star trails. Sorry I had to add a faded logo. I wanted to protect my images. I have found that some images on my site are being lifted. Without my permission. By business websites. I was asked if I had an image of The Northern Lights, without the star trails. Got me going back to look at my images. I have posted one image of the Northern Lights without the star trails. This single image formed one of the 100 that created the star trails image. See at foot of this page. I am delighted with the feedback on these images. A unique night that I will posssibly never repeat. See also Preston Mill Star Trails 6th March 2022 See also my visit to Preston Mill on 8th April 2017 for star trails   other latest photograph links   100 minutes Star Trails at Preston Mill with Northern Lights The moon shining onto The Mill from Behind me.   100 minutes Star Trails at Preston Mill with Northern Lights   90 minutes Star Trails at Preston Mill - Kase Neutral Night Filter to the lens   90 minutes Star Trails at Preston Mill - Kase Neutral Night Filter to the lens Torch beam shone onto Mill in the last one minute exposure.   The image below is one image of The Northern Lights. Of one minute in length. It was taken in the middle of the 100 one minute exposures for star trails. It caught the Northern Lights starting at 10.22pm . I have 5 images in total that captured the Northern lights from 10.22pm to 10.26pm. I kept taking the one minute star trails images until I had 100. The five form part of the top image of star trails with Northern Lights. Had I set up originally to take Northern Lights , rather than as I was set up for Star Trails. I would have had slightly different camera settings, with a higher ISO and shorter exposure lengths. Of maybe 15-20 seconds maximum.     back to the top