Another try at catching some star-trails. Its a bit difficult in the Peak with all the light pollution (Manchester on left and Sheffield on right), however monday night this week had fairly clear air. The light pollution blocks some of the duller stars, but there is an advantage to this - the brighter stars are more distinct. For example you can easily see the shape of the Plough (Ursa Major) above the Popular End. There was also good moonlight so I could catch a bit of foreground detail too. Although it looked a fair bit darker than this, the long exposure brightened it up a bit. 552secs, f/3.5 iso 200, 15mm EFL. I discovered that overexposing by 2 stops and then darkening reduces the noise a lot.
The smudgey bits are clouds blurring across the sky- I made a time lapse film of these http://www.vimeo.com/2215768 All comments and ideas greatly valued, I feel I'm at the beginning of a steep learning curve with all this.

The picture is so sharp, but yet really soft and fluffy! Love it

Like it but it`s not half as good as you`r yosemite one, you`ll have to come up with something really special to beat that one. Looking foreward to seeing some more of your work though keep it up ........ :#)