Yesterday, the conditions were right for shooting sun stars off the cabin windows of “Dear Abbie:” She was facing generally toward the low sun and swinging slowly on her mooring in Naskeag Harbor. At intervals, she would come around and face directly into the sun rays and her windows would become a huge glaring ball that would block out everything from cabin to bow and make watchers’ eyes wince closed.
Sun stars are created by the aperture that lets light into the camera when its blades whirl open. They’re not created by the sun or the reflecting glass. When intense light passes through a small aperture and is diffused across the opening aperture blades, the blades will create the points of a star on your image.
The more blades, the more star points; the straighter the blades’ edges, the sharper the star points; the smaller the aperture, the clearer the star. This image was taken with an aperture of f22 and an aperture opening speed (“shutter speed”) of 1/200th of a second. (Brooklin, Maine) Click on image to enlarge it.