Photographing the Night Sky

[ghetuning]

Good Evening,

I'm new to this and have a few questions and looking for some tips.

I'm wanting to photograph the Milky Way and anything else in the night sky. I'm trying to find out what settings I should use on my DSLR camera and what type of lens?

I look forward to the replys.

Gareth

[iksose7]

Hi Gareth

For imaging the Milky Way you want a wide as possible lens. Usually you get a 18-55mm with DSLRs as standard to set that to 18mm. As for settings it can depend on your sky, how much light pollution for example. But a safe bet is ISO 1600 and set the aperture wide open. And i'm guessing you dont have anything to counter the Earths rotation so i would stick with 20-30 seconds exposure otherwise you will get noticeable star trails. Just experiment though really, thats the fun bit!

[jambouk]

Lots of good articles on the internet about this:

http://kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way.htm

The darker the location (with respect to light pollution and moonlight) the much better any results will be.

Jd

[Digz]

Hi Gareth and Welcome.

What kit do you have? Do you want to capture wide shots or close shots of the Milky Way?

Depending on your sky darkness a static tripod and short focal length could see you up to about 20-30s before trailing is an issue.

The best advice is practice and see what works for you with your kit and location.

[ronin]

Really need to know the kit you have to use.

There is somewhere on SGL from about 2 days back a nice image of a section of the Milky Way taken with a camera and standard zoom lens. May have been a cluster in Casseiopia but as Casseiopia lies in the Milky Way it is still valid to say Milky Way.

For getting the longer exposures it will be a good idea to get a remote timer for the camera - Amazon, search for Remote Timer and the make of camera.

Check if the camera will take a "dark" exposure for long exposures by itself.

Many DSLR's do this, I know Canon and Sony's do and assume others as well.

As previously said try 1600 ISO or 3200 if it is available and 30 seconds.

Assuming some trailing is apparent drop down by 5 seconds and try again.

Allow the camera to cool between exposures by about the same amount of time as the exposure, but if you are adjusting settings this would occur anyway.

Best lens is likely a prime of 50mm or thereabouts, however most DSLR's come with a 17-55 zoom so try 20mm or 30mm for a first go.

Just to make sure the camera will need to set to Manual, you set the ISO, and the exposure length, then you focus it to infinity (not the little symbol on the lens that is not accurate) then you take the shot.