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Startrails Helps You Make Images of a Night's Worth of Sky

16.07.2012
Taking the star photos is the hardest part of making a star trail. Stacking them together is not much more complicated than the process for making a panorama in an application such as Windows Live Photo Gallery. You'll need a specialized star-trail stacking program; I recommend two, both of which are easy to use and free. Achim Schaller's Startrails is a good choice because it can not only stack your photos but also make an animation of the stars rotating in the sky. StarStax is a similar program, but it lacks the animation option.

To use Startrails, for example, simply download the program and copy the folder to a location on your PC (the program requires no other installation). Run Startrails by double-clicking the icon in the program folder.

Select File > Open, and choose all of the photos from your star shoot. Then, click Build > Startrails. A few minutes later (it might take a while on a slower PC, or if you have hundreds of photos), you'll end up with a completed photo that you can save to your PC.

Note: This software is donationware. It's free to use, but the developer accepts and encourages donations toward further development. For more information on how to make star trail images, see "."