Dark Skies / Milky Way

[Hawkeye]

Have just been away to Cornwall. Where I was staying was particularly dark skies so every clear night I was able to clearly see the milky way by eye.

Anyway, got the camera out and tried a single 30 second exposure just to see what the camera could pick up...

just wish I had taken the HEQ5 mount so I could have got some longer exposures (Still I will return next year!)

[davefrance]

Just a suggestion:

An alternative to lugging your HEQ mount about would be to take a number of shots (say 50 x 20 secs) and stitch or stack them.

Example below:-

[Atreta]

Yes, you could just use a tripod and take 20s shots for stacking.

Both of my milky way pictures where using a alt az mount.

you can get very good images this way.

[mballak]

For me personally I never use a mount when taking Milky Way picks.  Just a tripod.  But when you use this method the key is to have a really fast lens. Probably nothing slower than F2.8.  Then set the shutter using the rule of 500 (divide 500 by the focal length).  As use the highest ISO you can without getting to noisy.  I used this technique for the attached pic.  I think its 6 shots stitched together but each shot is a single exposure of 30 seconds, I think.  I would need to go check the RAWs.  

You can flip through for some others.  

If you know you are going somewhere dark and don't have a fast lens try renting one.  Here in the states I rent stuff I can't afford to buy all the time for photography.  

[Geordie mc]

Or there is the portable skytracker, skyguider, Astrotrac etc. which would easily take a dslr with wide angle lens to give 2 min exposures unguided.

[laser_jock99]

Or there is the portable skytracker, skyguider, Astrotrac etc. which would easily take a dslr with wide angle lens to give 2 min exposures unguided.

Any kind tracking mount will open up a new wealth of detail and depth. Definately worth the extra effort.

Here's a single 3 minute sub of Sagittarius I took earlier this month Wales- 80mm telephoto lens (unguided).

[AndyKeogh]

I was recently in La Palma about 4000ft ASL and took this 10 second test ( after nearly a week of rain and low clouds  ) to try and work out what exposure I needed.

24mm Lens at F2.0 ISO 12800.  I also had an Astrotrac with me so will look one out and post details

Andy

[AndyKeogh]

Ok this is a 5min unguided and badly framed photograph of the milky way.   Canon 50D Canon 16-35mm zoom at 16mm  f4.0 iso 1600

An advantage of the Astrotrac is that it will run off 8 AA batteries  This series was taken with a remote timer and no computer to monitor the framing

[ollypenrice]

Have just been away to Cornwall. Where I was staying was particularly dark skies so every clear night I was able to clearly see the milky way by eye.

Anyway, got the camera out and tried a single 30 second exposure just to see what the camera could pick up...

just wish I had taken the HEQ5 mount so I could have got some longer exposures (Still I will return next year!)

2014_08_12.png

Nice. You have The Great RIft.

Olly