Cindy - I use the Nikon MC-30A cable release. My first 2 cable releases were third party and they wore out in a short time so I paid more to get the Nikon MC-30A and so far it is holding up and it's been more than a year now. I use it all the time including last night to photograph the comet neowise. For what it's worth my D500 is tripod mounted paired with a Rokinon 16mm F2.0 lens. I sometimes vary the aperture from f/2.0 to f/4.0 depending how I want the trails to look. The lens is manual focus only, I turn off VR, shoot in manual mode, ISO my vary from 100 to whatever works, WB is set to daylight, and I set the release mode to CH. Once you engage the remote shutter release cable and set the lock the camera takes repeating exposures until you disengage the cable release lock. It is simple and this way you can take as many exposures as you like but you have to time it so that you get the length of trail you want. Just give it a try and see if it works for you. Happy shooting.

I use a D500 for star trails several times a year but as an alternative to using the in camera intervalometer I set my camera to continuous shooting mode, set my exposure to 30 sec, and lock my cable release to "on", set my stop watch to how ever long I want to shoot which is usually close to 2 hours to get nice trails. When the time is up I turn off the cable release lock and the camera stops shooting. I use an XQD card, I shoot RAW manual mode, usually iso 100 for star trails and there are no buffering problems. I get up to 380 exposures to stack and it works without a problem every time. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

opps sent it twice. sorry

They actually appear to be communicating with you. Great series but the last one is the prize winner. What wa it saying to you??

Thanks for taking time to reply to my question. I will check out the references you recommend. If you're interested in one more astrophotography resource take a look at Clarkvision.com. I too am retired and spend a good deal of my time with my camera in hand. A milky way photo is like a blank sheet so you have the opportunity to process it to your liking. Don't know about you but many photographers tend to make things too blue for my taste. The night sky ain't blue. Good shooting and will look forward to seeing more milky way photos next spring when the core is once again visible.

A really nice image. I enjoy getting out to different locations to shoot the milky way, it's just fun. My exposures are single shots only. If I may, I would like to ask a sincere question. What advantages do you see in your stacked images of the milky way over a single exposure of 20 seconds? I'm always looking for helpful hints to improve my astrophotography. Thanks.

Thanks Mike.

really nice series.

nice.

Stink bug

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Nice series. Well done.

What a great shot... You're pp and final presentation are eye-catching and pleasing to the viewer. Nice, really nice.

May be a Western Yellowjacket - Vespula pensylvanica. Would be happy if someone can confirm or correct my guess.

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Nice photo. Nice to hear it is a JPEG out of the camera. I have had some good success with JPEG shots as well. I shoot JPEG and RAW, 2 cards, in the camera. I check the JPEG files first for keepers.

Thank you jpintin, your comments are greatly appreciated.