Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

For night photography the wider the aperture the better. The 50mm at f1.4 should be fine for stars. See attached. Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 manual lens, iso-100, f1.4, 15 second exposure, on a tripod, using the 10 second shutter delay and keeping hands off the camera and tripod to avoid vibrations. If you look at the download with full magnification, you can see just the beginnings of star trails.

(Download)

Chicopee Loc: NY State, USA

Interesting....and certainly to be tried. What are the bluish circles around some of the stars?

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

It's been over a year since I took that shot but I recall there was a thin cloud cover that night and with the naked eye I was only able to see a dozen stars or so. The 15 second exposure allowed the sensor to record many hundreds of stars I couldn't see. I'm only guessing but maybe the halo around the brighter stars was caused by the overcast. Why the halos are blue I'm not sure, except the sky must have had some blue in it due to the moonlight that the sensor picked up. The largest star shows as an irregular yellow glob because of a piece of branch in front of it. But the colors are as remembered.

Chicopee Loc: NY State, USA

Thank you for your explanation as you remember it. It may be good to know if I experience the same thing.