Milky Way shots freeze the sky; star trails show it moving. Over minutes and hours, the Earth's rotation draws the stars into long arcs — and around the Pole Star, into perfect circles. Hanle's darkness makes it spectacular. Here's how to do it. If you're new to night photography, read Astrophotography in Hanle: A Beginner's Guide first, then Photographing the Milky Way.
The modern method: shoot short, stack later
Old-school star trails used one enormous exposure. Today the reliable way is to shoot many shorter frames and combine ("stack") them afterwards — cleaner, lower noise, and you can recover if one frame is ruined.
Gear
- Camera in manual mode + a wide, fairly fast lens.
- A rock-solid tripod.
- An intervalometer (built-in or external) to fire frames continuously.
- Fully charged spare batteries kept warm — this eats power over an hour or more.
Settings to start with
- Aperture: f/2.8–f/4.
- ISO: ~800–1600 (lower than a single Milky Way shot, because you're stacking many frames).
- Shutter: 20–30 seconds per frame, back-to-back, for 30–90+ minutes total. More time = longer trails.
- Set the interval to 1–2 seconds between frames so there are no gaps in the trails.
- Focus manually to infinity, shoot RAW, and turn off long-exposure noise reduction (it creates gaps between frames).
Compose for the effect you want
- Point toward Polaris (the Pole Star) — find it using the Big Dipper (see Beginner's Guide to the Night Sky) — for dramatic circular trails.
- Point elsewhere for long, sweeping arcs.
- Include a strong foreground — a homestay, a chorten, the horizon — scouted in daylight.
Then stack
Combine the frames in free software (e.g. StarStaX) or your photo editor using a "lighten" blend. The stars merge into continuous trails.
Survive the shoot
You'll be out in deep cold for a long time — dress for it (What to Pack), keep batteries warm, use a red torch, and never light-paint near other stargazers (Responsible Visitor guide).
A warm homestay a few steps away makes the long, cold wait worth it. Book your night-sky base »
