I'm rather amazed at the squabbling and bickering over the type of comment that may or may not be appropriate in relation to Shadowblade's clearly spectacular photo of the moonrise over Manaslu. Well done, Shadowblade! That shows real dedication lying in the snow for an hour or more in freezing temperatures.
Perhaps I should attempt to lead some of you out of this morass of confusion you've descended into. (On the other hand, perhaps I shouldn't.
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The subtitle of this section of the forum clearly states, "Nature Photography - technical and esthetic issues".
I see no reason why it would not be in order for someone to comment that they would prefer to see stationary stars, just as the eye sees them in the natural environment, rather than this exaggerated movement of the earth in relation to the stars. This is a legitimate esthetic issue.
On the other hand, that apparent movement of the stars, which is really a movement of the earth, is fascinating in its own right. Galileo would have been delighted to see such an image. It's also very eye-catching from an esthetic point of view.
On the technical side, it's also appropriate to ask why Shadowblade did not bracket exposures in order to capture the stars as the eye sees them, with a shorter exposure.
His reply was, that this wouldn't have been possible because of the short exposure time required, which would presumably have generated an awful lot of noise. Now I'm not sure if that is the case, but I'm no expert in photographing the starry night. Perhaps using a camera with a high DR like the Nikon D7000 or D800, it might be possible to take an exposure of, say, 5 seconds, which would freeze the stars as the eye sees them, without generating too much background noise.
I searched my data base for an example of any shot I'd taken of a starry night, and found a shot also taken in Nepal, but in a different region of Nepal, at the Machapuchare Base Camp (or MBC). This is a 30 second exposure taken with the Nikon D700 and 14-24/2.8 zoom at 14mm.
It was a moonlit night and I was scheduled to get up early to begin the trek to the ABC camp. I got up earlier than the others to take a few shots about 3.30am. The lodge is eerily deserted as you can see. Unfortunately, the stars look a bit pathetic. They have lost their twinkle and look a bit smudged. The fainter ones have got lost entirely.
I would have preferred the effect that Shadowblade has achieved with his 45 minute exposure.
