Beginner First Attempt Help Wanted

[WaltonR]

Good evening all.
I spent rather a good week down in Cornwall last week and during my time down there I was looking up at the sky and marvelling at all the stars that were visible down there. Then I had the brain wave - it don't happen that often, so it came as quite a shock to me I can tell you - that I could have a go at Astro-Photography. I'd got my tripod with me and I had the perfect chance at shooting the stars being based at the top of the cliffs in Freathy on our own private decking.
I'd downloaded the Sky-Walk app and was looking around for any probable features. Pointing out to sea I think the app was showing me the Milky Way and I'd previously seen an amazing image someone put up in this forum of the Milky Way shot from Port Wrinkle just a couple of miles along the coast from me.
I set up my camera using the following settlings:

1. ISO 5000
2. Manual focus at infinity
3. Bulb shutter set at 5 mins using an MC-36 remote.
4. Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8
5. D800 camera on tripod

I managed to get the following image and was pleased to at least see something up there, although I do realise that it falls way short of some of the images I've seen from you guys. Any help you could offer would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Stars-1a.jpg

• WaltonR
• 20 Sep 2020

 

[billy nomates]

The shutter speed is your main issue, the rule of 500 is a simple guide as to how to avoid star trails. Just divide focal length by 500 so if you had it set at 24mm 500/24 would give you a 20 second exposure time. Then reduce noise and tease out more detail using lightroom.
Its an amazing feeling that first time you realise you've got the milky way though isn't it? Living close to Dartmoor I can find it by eye quite quickly these days, but as you have captured, that orange glow of light pollution is never far away - lightroom to the rescue again

 

[VirtualAdept]

There's a couple of very good videos on how to edit photos of the milky way that are well worth watching, as well.

 

[WaltonR]

Thanks guys.
Appreciate the assistance.

 

[Kopite4Ever]

Really good effort.

I struggled when I started with focusing as my lenses did not have an infinity marker and where all focus by wire.

I would defiantly stack multiple exposures anywhere from 4-10 is good really if your using the rule of 500 to get exposure times of about 20-25 seconds. You can go for those lovely long exposures with a star tracker but costs start to add up. Then just use a app like deep sky tracker on windows (free) or starry landscape tracker on mac (not free) to do the work for you. A good lightroom edit and they will look amazing and noise free (within reason) due to the stack.

Use the MC-36 as an intervalometer for this when you get your settings dialled in.

 

[Tom Pinchenzo]

Nice attempt. Looks like there’s a fair bit of light pollution. Shooting out to sea is quite good at avoiding light pollution. Most AF lenses actually focus past infinity so You can’t just spin it round until it stops. you have to actually find a distant object to focus on. This can be one of the more tricky techniques in Astro. The rule of 500 is a good rule of thumb but doesn’t work on higher res cameras. There’s something called the NPF rule which takes into account the res of the camera. With a 36mp camera at 24mm you have to shoot at 10 sec to get properly sharp images. 20 sec would give you much better results than your original image. I would have a go at 20” f/2.8 and ISO 1600/3200. These setting should give you very good images of the Milky Way. You can also try stacking the images with software like Sequator to get cleaner images. Check out some YouTube tutorials. Astro has quite a learning curve but is really fun and you can get awesome results. With your kit and some small tweaks to your technique you should be able to massively improve on your valiant first effort.

 

[Tringa]

Good evening all.
I spent rather a good week down in Cornwall last week and during my time down there I was looking up at the sky and marvelling at all the stars that were visible down there. Then I had the brain wave - it don't happen that often, so it came as quite a shock to me I can tell you - that I could have a go at Astro-Photography. I'd got my tripod with me and I had the perfect chance at shooting the stars being based at the top of the cliffs in Freathy on our own private decking.
I'd downloaded the Sky-Walk app and was looking around for any probable features. Pointing out to sea I think the app was showing me the Milky Way and I'd previously seen an amazing image someone put up in this forum of the Milky Way shot from Port Wrinkle just a couple of miles along the coast from me.
I set up my camera using the following settlings:

1. ISO 5000
2. Manual focus at infinity
3. Bulb shutter set at 5 mins using an MC-36 remote.
4. Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8
5. D800 camera on tripod

I managed to get the following image and was pleased to at least see something up there, although I do realise that it falls way short of some of the images I've seen from you guys. Any help you could offer would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Stars-1a.jpg

• WaltonR
• 20 Sep 2020

Have a look at these two links, both very useful -

How I Photographed The Milky Way (Part 1) - Phil Maddocks Photography

In Part 1 of How I Photographed the Milky Way I talk about the equipment you will need as well as other considerations to make such as location and weather

philmaddocks.com

How I Photographed the Milky Way (Part 2) - Phil Maddocks Photography

In Part 2 of How I Photographed the Milky Way I talk about how I achieved my photograph, settings, and the technique I used to stack over 50 images together

philmaddocks.com

Dave

 

[paleblue]

Not a bad start! Good advice from other here already. My general advice for the best milky way shots:

• The core of the milky way is above the horizon between spring and late summer. May and June are great months for getting the most striking pictures.
• A lot of really great Milky Way pics you'll see will be taken with full frame cameras paired with wide aperture lenses (e.g. 24mm f/1.4) are the best for getting as much light as possible. Unfortunately crop sensors have limitations in how much light they gather compared to full frame.
• A lot of editing goes into stacking/merging, bringing out the detail etc. It's a bit of an art. If you have photoshop, there are lots of great videos on how to edit milky way pics.

Look forward to seeing more attempts in the future!

 

[WaltonR]

Not a bad start! Good advice from other here already. My general advice for the best milky way shots:

• The core of the milky way is above the horizon between spring and late summer. May and June are great months for getting the most striking pictures.
• A lot of really great Milky Way pics you'll see will be taken with full frame cameras paired with wide aperture lenses (e.g. 24mm f/1.4) are the best for getting as much light as possible. Unfortunately crop sensors have limitations in how much light they gather compared to full frame.
• A lot of editing goes into stacking/merging, bringing out the detail etc. It's a bit of an art. If you have photoshop, there are lots of great videos on how to edit milky way pics.

Look forward to seeing more attempts in the future!

Thanks for the reply Rick.
I have the full frame camera (D800) and 24-70mm f2.8 lens. It's just a case now of getting into some dark skies at the right time and learning how to stack/merge in Photoshop to do now.
It'll come I'm sure.