Capturing the stars

[negative_optimist]

I had the clearest night I had ever seen whilst up in the Himalayas. Unfortunately I failed to capture a good night scene due to lack of light in the foreground to capture a sense of place. What I did try to do was get a good exposure of the stars and I've linked the attempt to this post. Looking at this I think I should have gone for a smaller apature and checked the focusing. What should I be setting the camera to so I can capture the stars in my future shots. I'm not really into the light trail photos and I liked the colours I got in this shot.

[PaulMontgomery]

For this:

DSC_5747 by P_Monty, on Flickr
I used a wide angle lens, wide aperture and high ISO to keep the trails to a minimum with a 30 second exposure.

[OldBoy]

That's a cracking shot Paul.

[negative_optimist]

Thanks for the tips and a great photo. This is what I was looking to get.
I avoided the high ISOs because I expected lots of noise showing up against the black background. I'll have to give this a go.

[ianpinion]

Try ISO 800, f/5 and 30 seconds for starters. You should get a reasonable image with those settings.