Stacking (Combining) Night Images with (almost) Free Tools for Windows

Steven Christenson of StarCircleAcademy.com shows how to use Picasa3, Image Stacker by Tawbaware, and StarTrails.exe by Achim Shaller to combine short sky exposures into long sky exposures.

Suitable for PC users only. There are not any free programs for the Mac.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• stacking
• stars
• star trails
• long exposure
• Image Stacker
• Startrails.exe
• Picasa3
• Steven Christenson
• StarCircleAcademy.com
• Windows

[TheBassmastersmith]

Hi. a very helpful tutorial.....I was trying out some star trail photography today, using 24 images each of 30 seconds. I then used the star trail software to stack the images. The trail of stars appears as a series of small dots. Is this because of the time between each shot taken or am I doing something wrong? Also, is there a way to set the capture mode on continuous with the shutter speed on 30 seconds? I appreciate any help. Thanks

[StevenTheAmusing]

@TheBassmastersmith

There are lots of reasons why your exposures may come out as "dots" or a "dotted line".

May I suggest you read my Stacker's Checklist, or "Trouble With Long Exposures 2" on my BLOG.StarCircleAcademy(dot)com for generic and more detailed information.

For you question "can you use continuous mode for 30 second exposures" the answer is usually YES, but it depends on your camera.

[rogasSM]

thanks a lot for the explanation. Thumbs up!