MilkyWay help?

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Me and my son have been trying to get some Milky Way shots. We get images of the milkyway but they dont ‘pop’ and they aren’t like the ones that you see posted with loads of depth and clarity. Is this possible without a star tracker? Any help and tips are greatly appreciated....
 
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A tracker gives you much cleaner images to start of with. You want to capture the skies more exposed than you think. It does take a fair bit of editing to pull details out (please don't slide 'dehaze' to +100!) and keep things looking fairly natural.

You also aren't really catching the brightest area of the Milky Way at this time of year.
 
The milky way doesn't pop! It's a subtle feature and using editing specifically on the milky way is just making it something that it is not. If you can do global editing and still make it pop then great but don't use tools on the thing! The attached pics were edited globally so show what the milky way brightness is relative to the sky. These were taken from a mountain top in Wales. The green glow isn't light pollution, it's Sky Glow.sagittarius 14mm glider fach-2.jpgsagittarius 50mm glider fach.jpg
 
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Brendan Mulachy said:
Can someone explain the procedure for getting shots of the milky way please
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Not the idea time of year now.....

But.....

Shutter speed as long as possible not to get star trails - around 10-15s I think for 24mm FF. Aperture normally pretty wide open (dependant on lens) & ISO whatever is need for a decent exposure. If ISO isn't great, take multiple (6-10x) images & stack for noise reduction. You may also need to take separate foreground & sky images to balance exposure levels.

My go-to is 90 seconds, f/1.4 - f/2 & ISO200 - 800 depending on location/subject. Also that's using a tracker hence 90 secs.
 
LeeRatters said:
Not the idea time of year now.....

But.....

Shutter speed as long as possible not to get star trails - around 10-15s I think for 24mm FF. Aperture normally pretty wide open (dependant on lens) & ISO whatever is need for a decent exposure. If ISO isn't great, take multiple (6-10x) images & stack for noise reduction. You may also need to take separate foreground & sky images to balance exposure levels.

My go-to is 90 seconds, f/1.4 - f/2 & ISO200 - 800 depending on location/subject. Also that's using a tracker hence 90 secs.
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i take it that you need some dark sky away from light pollution and a clear night...but how do you actually find the milky way, what season am i best to try( im guessing at summer)
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
i take it that you need some dark sky away from light pollution and a clear night...but how do you actually find the milky way, what season am i best to try( im guessing at summer)
Click to expand...

Light pollution map

Interactive world light pollution map. The map uses NASA VIIRS, World Atlas 2015, Aurora prediction, observatories, clouds and SQM/SQC overlay contributed by users.
www.lightpollutionmap.info www.lightpollutionmap.info

^^^^ You want to be shooting in (or towards) dark areas really but I have shot in green before - Anything Bortle 1-4 should be okay really.

Clear night ideally! Or at least in the direction you are shooting.

Stellarium is pretty good for telling you where everything is - App purchase or online or desktop download. Springtime before sunrise in the south east for MW core & swings towards the south west after sunset for September. But obviously there's more than just the Milky Way. Ursa Major for starters & we're just coming into Orion season too. Cygnus area of the MW should be in the north west I think coming into winter.

Local church - This is just in a dark area - green to the left & right in the distance from the above website.

*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
LeeRatters said:

Light pollution map

Interactive world light pollution map. The map uses NASA VIIRS, World Atlas 2015, Aurora prediction, observatories, clouds and SQM/SQC overlay contributed by users.
www.lightpollutionmap.info www.lightpollutionmap.info

^^^^ You want to be shooting in (or towards) dark areas really but I have shot in green before - Anything Bortle 1-4 should be okay really.

Clear night ideally! Or at least in the direction you are shooting.

Stellarium is pretty good for telling you where everything is - App purchase or online or desktop download. Springtime before sunrise in the south east for MW core & swings towards the south west after sunset for September. But obviously there's more than just the Milky Way. Ursa Major for starters & we're just coming into Orion season too. Cygnus area of the MW should be in the north west I think coming into winter.

Local church - This is just in a dark area - green to the left & right in the distance from the above website.

*** by Lee, on Flickr
Click to expand...

When you say spring I’m the south east I guess you mean orientation rather than part of the country?

I say that because the hardest thing for me is finding locations. Being in the midlands I have to travel a long way to get to anywhere with dark enough skies and a decent foreground - I just don’t know where to go really as going on spec I don’t think I’d find anywhere
 
Lovely images, keep posting please ;)
 
A_S said:
When you say spring I’m the south east I guess you mean orientation rather than part of the country?

I say that because the hardest thing for me is finding locations. Being in the midlands I have to travel a long way to get to anywhere with dark enough skies and a decent foreground - I just don’t know where to go really as going on spec I don’t think I’d find anywhere
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Yes. The view of the night sky isn't going to change too much throughout England.

You don't need Australian Outback or Utah Desert bortle 1 skies for night sky photos ;) Although yes, the darker the better really. I don't know exactly where you are but isn't the Shropshire Hills, Malvern Hills, Peak District, Mid Wales all in the general 'Midlands' area? I think there's even a guy on YT & IG called Midlands Night Sky or something.

We've travelled to the Dorset Coast numerous times. Stonehenge. Knowlton Church. A mate of mine regularly goes down to the South Devon Coast & a few have travelled over to Exmoor & down to Dartmoor & Cornwall. This is all from the Bristol area.
 
Thanks - Shrewsbury is about 1 and a half hours from me and Peak District is similar to get to the dark sky area around Hartington.

Distance isn’t a problem but knowing locations is. Maybe I should just pick some in the Peak District and go and see….

Will have a look for this guy on YouTube cheers
 
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Get to the darkest possible place away from light pollution, impossible down here in the the SE so have to compromise, use a wide angle lens, I use a Tokina 11-16mm zoom, keep it wide open, f/2.8 on this lens, a max of 25 seconds, this need to be reduced if using a longer focal length, and an ISO around 3200, but you can go higher. Remember these are just guides, the focal length and sensor size effect these settings, i.e. full frame or crop. There are some rules of thumb you can follow, the 500 rule or NPF rule, best to Google these for explanations. Also remember the Milky Way core is only visible at certain times and you need to be looking south east to west depending on the time of year, and of course you need the moon to hidden. It's worth splashing out £10 for the PhotoPills app, it gives you so much information, including night AR so you can see in real time the position of the MW from where you are standing.
 
A_S said:
Thanks - Shrewsbury is about 1 and a half hours from me and Peak District is similar to get to the dark sky area around Hartington.

Distance isn’t a problem but knowing locations is. Maybe I should just pick some in the Peak District and go and see….

Will have a look for this guy on YouTube cheers
Click to expand...

I shot a 180° Milky Way arch panorama from around this area earlier this year ;)

Light pollution map

Interactive world light pollution map. The map uses NASA VIIRS, World Atlas 2015, Aurora prediction, observatories, clouds and SQM/SQC overlay contributed by users.
www.lightpollutionmap.info www.lightpollutionmap.info

As I said, you don't have to be in the middle of nowhere.
 
LeeRatters said:
I shot a 180° Milky Way arch panorama from around this area earlier this year ;)

Light pollution map

Interactive world light pollution map. The map uses NASA VIIRS, World Atlas 2015, Aurora prediction, observatories, clouds and SQM/SQC overlay contributed by users.
www.lightpollutionmap.info www.lightpollutionmap.info

As I said, you don't have to be in the middle of nowhere.
Click to expand...
Seeing the same view in the default layers shows more I think. In this view you should go to Wales!
 
Brendan Mulachy said:
i take it that you need some dark sky away from light pollution and a clear night...but how do you actually find the milky way, what season am i best to try( im guessing at summer)
Click to expand...

Look up!

Seriously, if you're a fairly dark spot, give your eyes 20 mins to acclimatise and you'll see it with the naked eye, it will look like a faint cloud going from one edge of the sky to the opposite side.


Failing that crank up the iso and take a high iso shot of the sky and you will see it immediately.


The milky way is always there, its just the middle bit that everyone likes and has the most vibrant is only really visible to us from late march to mid September. LIke others have said you don't need to be in a dark sky location to photograph it, it just makes it more visible and less light pollution. I've taken pictures of it in Southampton before.
 
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miscat said:
Oh sorry I forgot to post the link. The original one gives the impression that towns are bright and outside towns in dark but it's more nuanced of course. The default view shows variations in countryside areas. Look at mid Wales!

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=11.88&lat=50.9149&lon=-1.9406&layers=B0FFFFFFFTFFFFFFFFFFF
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That's 2015.

I use the latest 2021 model in all honesty. Compare Hinkley Point from 2016 to 2021.....

Anyway, it was more to the point that I shot a panoramic arch in that location and didn't need to be in a completely dark (mid Wales type) location.
 
It is tempting to use the latest but I came to the conclusion a few years ago that the data is not comparable. If you look at 2013 and then later in the decade you find that light pollution has decreased. But anyway what I was meaning was the one that I gave lets you see the variations in rural areas very clearly. It will have changed since then but at least it does give an indication rather than no indication at all.
 
in regards to your question yes. just take multiple exposures and use either https://www.startools.org/links--tutorials/free-image-stacking-solutions/sequator for windows or mac https://apps.apple.com/au/app/starry-landscape-stacker/id550326617?mt=12

then just import into photoshop. you can quite easily take 50 shots just make sure you are using the NPF RULE https://petapixel.com/2017/04/07/npf-rule-formula-sharp-star-photos-every-time/

each program allows you to freeze the foreground when stacking. loads of YT vids on both to help you along

Most likely the shutter times will be a lot shorter than what you have been doing but this allows the signal to noise ratio to build up and give you a cleaner image.

Dan
 
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