Seeing stars

In the winter on the farm its dark so much - but going about outside you really notice how massive the sky is and just how amazing the stars are ... I never cease to marvel when I look at the Milky Way and realise just how small a part of the whole scheme of things our galaxy is.

Anyway, here is my first attempt at catching some star trails ... set camera on tripod, focus to infinity, pointed lens generally towards Polaris (I hoped as I couldn't see anything through the viewfinder), white balance set to tungsten, exposure to bulb, locked cable release then went back into the house for a while (826 second exposure in the end). Turns out I aimed a bit too low and there is noise from the long exposure and I didn't leave it long enough to get long trails ... next attempts will be a series of shorter exposure images that will be combined to reduce the noise and I'll work out a method of aiming the rig properly.

Any tips and tricks on taking star trail shots would be appreciated :-)