Originally Posted by roentarre
Dan, that is sensor blooming. Common and avoidable by avoiding long exposure > 1 sec with smaller aperture.
Underexpose the shot a few more stops will reduce this problem too.
A common problem with digital night photography
James; I was referring not to the bloom itself, but to those strange Egyptian-like patterns present. Is that bloom, sensor error, or is it just the way they're supposed to work?
Maybe this'll help my cause. See the patterns I'm referring to?