We all have cameras, and the sky’s an easy target, so why not have a little fun? Ever since I got my first camera at age 12 I wanted to shoot time exposures of the night sky. That and a tripod are all you need. Presented here for your enjoyment are a few oddball and yet oddly informative images of stars and planets. Take the word “art” loosely!
![This is the pair to the Sirius image and shows Jupiter through the telescope. Notice how blandly white it appears. That's because Jupiter's disk is large enough to not show twinkling (and color changes) caused by atmospheric turbulence as in the case of point-like Sirius.](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Star-Art-Jupiter-no-color-580x417.jpg)
![Orion's Belt and Sword trail in this time exposure made with a 200mm lens. The nearly perfectly parallel because the stars lie very near the celestial equator and were on the meridian at the time.](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Star-Art-Orion-Belt-time-exposure-Jan26_2012_S-580x460.jpg)
![Star Trek Effect. OK, this was crazy to shoot. I centered Jupiter in the viewfinder, pressed the shutter button for a 20-second time exposure and slowly zoomed out from 70mm to 200mm on the telephoto lens. It took a few tries, because I was shooting blind, but even the rejects weren't too bad. Credit: Bob King](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Star-art-Jupiter-zoom_S-580x386.jpg)
![Color by fog. The colors of stars are accentuated when photographed through fog or light cloud. Orion at right with the crescent moon at lower left. Credit: Bob King](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Star-art-Starfest2010Orion-in-fog-580x347.jpg)
![Snow flies. During a time exposure taken on a snowy but partly cloudy night, snowflakes, illuminated by a yard light, streak about beneath a Full Moon earlier this winter. Credit: Bob King](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/STAR-ART-Moon-with-snowfall-snow-_S-580x387.jpg)
![Stuttering Stars. For this image of the Big Dipper the camera was on a tracking mount. I left the shutter open for about a half hour, then covered the lens with a black cloth for a few minutes. After the cloth was removed, I started tracking and exposed the Dipper for a few minutes. During part of the exposure I used a diffusion filter in front of the lens to soften and enlarge the brightest stars. Credit: Bob King](https://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Star-Art-Dipper-trailsS-580x549.jpg)