Really basic SLR question

[Richard734]

Folishly deleted teh Stargazing program from the Sky-Planner :)What were the setting that were recomended for a simple star image? I know it was set to 30 secs exposure, but cant remember anything other than that :)Thanks

[MarySkater]

He said ISO 800, and I think the aperture was f5.6.

[Mark-mck]

hi richard,

i've been having a play about at taking some widefield shots myself, and have found there is no hard and fast rule. just have a play and use what settings give you the best result.

[Photosbykev]

With a wideangle lens you can get away with 30 seconds, using iso 800/1600 and use the maximum aperture you can with the lens, f5.6 is ok, f4 is better, f2.8 is even better. This will maximise the star count in the final image but may show up a lot of light pollution, to reduce the LP close the aperture slightly or reduce the exposure time until you get the best result.

[jgs001]

What camera and lens do you have ?

This pretty much covers what they said on the program http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/73737-basic-widefield-camera-tripod.html

without the card to cover the lens ...

[Richard734]

Its a Konica-Minolta D5, its fairly old but works great for me - Thanks for your help everyone - Might have a play as soon as I see some clear sky.I'm think June the way things are going at the moment!

[Keiran]

There are no rule, it is all dependant on the camera, lense, and effect that you want.

Try and keep the ISO as low as possible, the higher the ISO the more noise. If you have a low noise camera then you can go to ISO 800 -1600 if not then keep it between ISO 400 - 800.

As for exposure, the higher the better, but stop when you get star trailing, or the light polution takes over.

Open the apeture as wide as you can, I have a 50mm F1.8, so I can step it down to F1.8.

Its all about trial and error, but that should get you started.

Hope that helps

Keiran