Required kit
-Camera which can take continuous long exposure images over time
-Charged camera batteries
-Tripod – essential to keep the camera steady and pointing in the same direction
-A clear night 

Additional kit
-Remote release used to keep the shutter release open – else you have to press the shutter release each time to take a shot
-Torch – basically to see where you are going in the dark   
-Some foreground object, a tree perhaps or the top of a building .. etc

Setup
I tested the process in my back garden with the top of a tree as my foreground interest, then with the camera on a tri pod I set it to an exposure time of 30secons, ISO 400, F5.6 and auto white balance.  Focusing on the stars was done manually and I had a cable release for starting the shoot.  After a few test shots to check the settings I pressed the remote and set it to hold the shutter release; so although the camera is capable of taking 6 shots a second it was now taking 1 shot every 30 seconds   I then left it alone for just over an hour and ended up with 100+ photos.  I shot in RAW and used a 2gb card.
Note: When I decided enough was enough I shone the torch into the tree for the last two exposures, this brought some light to the foreground.  Then I released the shutter and stopped taking pictures.  The last thing you have to do is put the lens cap back on and take one more photo, will tell you why in a moment.

Process
Armed with all those photos I converted them from RAW to JPG (also tweeked the colours slightly) and then used startrails.exe (free software) to stitch all the photos together.  This is possible in photoshop, or a similar package but would take ages, where as with startrails you point the software to the folder containing your images and it does the rest.  Now, the image you took with the lens cap on — this is known as the “darkframe” in Startrails and useful for reducing image noise.

Result
You can see the first result on my Flickr page to the left hand side, however I wanted to share the process.

From the home page:

“The Secunia PSI protects against software vulnerabilities 527,821 users have already installed the Secunia PSI and 45,228,804 user applications are currently monitored.”

I will post comments as I continue to test this, but you can get your copy here

Excellent Mindmap if I do say so myself.

Article 1

Article 2

Dear __ ____ _________

Thank you for your quote request. We can confirm it has been forwarded to the BT team with Reference Number ZZZZZZZ. You will receive a reply shortly. Please retain the reference number for future use.

Best wishes,

BT

“All you’ll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I’ve never known such a palaver about nothing,” he told readers.

So, he published is own account details and how to find his address.

What happened?

Well, someone has since opened a direct debit for £500 from his account and into the account of the charity, Diabetes UK.  Seems the bank can’t tell him who did it due to the Data Protection Act and cannot prevent it happening again.

My quiet amassment is not that it happened to him but that someone followed this through and highlighted what can happen when you are haphazard with personal details and set yourself up for a fall.  Whether this was a direct result of an anonymous reader getting hold of the details or a close friend “playing a joke” the punishment is fitting. 

Good charitable cause, I hope the direct debit stays !!!

Original BBC report.