Night Sky

by Debbie Wagner
(Pennsylvana)

This ws my first attempt at a shot of the night Sky. The sky was clear and the stars were out in mass. This was taken at 9:27 PM EST. I used a Nikon D90 with an 18-200mm lens, the only equipment I own. I also used a tripod and a remote to trigger the shutter.

Exposure bias F/1.0
Exposure time 96 seconds
F number 5.0
Max Aperature F/3.5
Focal length 18mm

I like the way this one came out with the exception of one thing. The stars on the right appear as tiny lines rather than the circles they should be. I believe this is due to the longer exposure time which resulted in "tracking" of the stars as the earth rotates. Any way of fixing this for next time? The first image is the original and the second is one I added a soft focus to to add a slight glow to some of the brighter stars and did some touch up on the areas I mentioned. Corel was used to do this. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, critiques, criticisms.

Debbie