Anyone recommend a good place to start

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Utred

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Stew
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had a brief look through the forum, but can't find a decent guide to trying astrophotography - can anyone recommend a good forum thread or online article to read?
 
More towards shooting and setting-up - although location wise, I'm assuming somewhere without cloud? and form looking around, it should be treated like a landscape and inlcude foreground interest.
 
Utred said:
location wise, I'm assuming somewhere without cloud?
Click to expand...
Well, you don't want clouds on the nights when you're shooting. But unless you go somewhere like the Atacama Desert or the top of a very high mountain (ie where all the big astronomical observatories are!), you just have to pick nights when it's clear. The weather forecast is your friend.

But the other things you want from a location are dark skies, and no aircraft contrails. There are lots of places on the internet where you can get useful maps. Here's one as a starter:

http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/bestukastrolocation.html
 
Have a look at this link - http://www.lonelyspeck.com/lenses-for-milky-way-photography/

It is more to do with choice of lens but at the bottom of the page there is a link to a .pdf file which has some basics about star photography.

Also Google for Starstax (if you are interested in star trails) and and Deep Sky Stacker (if you want stars as point of light).

If you want shots of the Milky Way getting to know your way around the sky is handy. Stellarium is a free star program that can be set for any location and will make it easier to find the Milky Way. A head torch with a red light is also useful - leaves your hands free and doesn't destroy your night vision.

There is a good tutorial on here - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/photography-guide-star-trails.45/ - for star trails.

Dave
 
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I've been looking at the same thing Stew, there's quite a bit out there for beginners
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/QUICK.HTM is good for absolute beginners
http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography-complete-guide is probably better with many pages of tips and hints on imaging moon, planets and deep sky objects.
If you have a camera [which I assume you do!] that's all you need to start. Stick it on a tripod and start shooting the stars. Remember the "Rule of 600". To avoid motion blur divide focal length of lens by 600 to give exposure time. e.g. a 400mm lens divided by 600 = 1.5 secs.
 
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