Thanks. Didn't have much to work with in terms of landscape.
Horizontal one was 8 seconds, vertical was 5 seconds. Both at ISO 3200.
Cool.
I suggest using as low an ISO as you can keep the stars stationary.
With a normal lens (<80mm) you should get away with 20 seconds, depending on the latitude and season, with a wide lens, you might even get 45 seconds or more.
Then you can shoot at ISO 200 and keep the noise down... not that it's an issue, but the noise is far easier to cope with at those lower settings and you get the same exposure otherwise.
Of course, with a longer lens (and near the equator), you need shorter exposures to keep the star trails away. I have seem them with a 200mm lens as short as 5 seconds.
But... sometimes you have a *very* dark sky and want to reach really deep into the heavens and the high ISO can help (but you should be maxing out your exposure length first, in my opinion)
I have three I would like to share, I hope that's alright.
First, this is the deepest I've ever been able to reach.
This is on a D700, at f/2.8 ISO 6400 for 30 seconds, almost 50 miles from the nearest man-made light, at about 10,000 feet elevation on a cold, dry fall night. This one is amazing. At a 100% crop, it's impossible to tell the amp noise from stars, every pixel has a unique value in an almost fractal sense and each zoom level reveals a whole new set of star patterns. It makes me wish for a large telescope or a tracker.
The next two were taken while flying over the North Atlantic in the late spring on a 747 between Canada and Norway. It took me 30 attempts for each each exposure (between 8 and 15 seconds) to get one that was sharp enough to keep. It was handheld and in a moving plane... tricky... But it kept me busy for a long flight.
Anyway, first, about 3am at 42,000 feet, facing south from just below the arctic circle.
Second, the first hint of sunrise, also 42,000 feet, about 4am, facing north off the east coast of Iceland.
So, all of these ignore my "lower ISO is better" advice as they were all at ISO 6400, but I guess I posted them as exceptions, either when it's so dark you need more than 30 or 60 seconds can give you at ISO 200, or you need to avoid shaking (in an airplane?)
Edit: Image links fixed
Edit2: I just read the whole guide, and I think I was a bit repetitive with a few points, but I guess it's good that we agree! He's certainly far more of an expert at the topic than I am!
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