I'm about to start planning my Astronomy coursework - the exam board is edexcel and I'm taking it as a GCSE alongside my A-levels. I'm writing up the plan for my coursework next week.
I have to take a long-exposure photograph of circumpolar stars and use the trace to calculate the length of the sidereal day. The only problem is, i can't get my hands on a camera with long enough exposure.
I thought to overcome this, I'd take lots of photographs at regular intervals within a set time period and find a programme to blend them on my laptop so I can still get the visible trace of the star's 'path' across the sky.
Can anyone recommend me a good website or some free, downloadable software that I can use??
This is normally done with a camera on a "B" setting that keeps the aperture open permanently until you release it. Most of the old film cameras had this setting.