Star Trails - Digital or 35mm?

I think you need a "wired remote" to operate the bulb setting for long exposures. As your not using Film anymore you can afford to experiment. I used to do quite a bit of astrophotography with my old Pentax K1000.

You could start with this group on Yahoo:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/

I used a Nikon Coolpix 8800 earlier this year to take some star trail shots. It did pretty well for a P&S camera. I used ISO 50, f/8, and held the bulb for 10 minutes. Resulted in a nice, orange glow on the low horizon from distant city lights, and a sky full of about 1-inch star trails. I'd use a wide angle lens if I were you. I think the CP8800 was capable of 28mm for the shortest focal length.

Good luck!

I think you may be better off with film. Long exposures with digital sucks battery power so you'll have to be careful about that, unless you have a power supply.

I found a page that has a wealth of astro-photography advice.

Let me know how you get on with your *ist DL, I recently bought a K1000 and I like the idea of using my lenses with a digital body!