Beginner New to Astro, MW arch

[MrDrizz]

I've only ever tried Astro once before up at the Lone tree in Malham. That went well enough I guess. Last night however I tried something way out my comfort zone, a full Milky way arch over Snowdon in Snowdonia, Wales.
To my untrained eye it looks great but I also know there are many errors, biggest of which is the shutter speed was too high, 25 second while at 14mm. But I was using a F4 lens. I also need to work on PP.

Feedback and critique greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.


Milky Bar Kid
by Mark Boadey, on Flickr

 

[alan72]

I think that's great for a first attempt. The star trailing won't really show excessively unless you print big. A little pp to give it some oomph and it will be nice. There are plenty of YouTube videos on pp milky was shots. Keep at it!

 

[Dangermouse]

This is something I keep saying I will try but have no idea what settings to use, I have a D810 and 19mm lens and tripod but as for settings ???

 

[Nod]

The EXIF for the posted shot is available on Flickr and is a useful starting point, then play! MW exposures tend to be around 30 seconds or so so you've got lots of chances at it every clear evening (if you have a view of the MW and little light pollution!) Other astro stuff (other than deep sky like Sara's [swag72]) is similar - fairly high ISO, wide angle and a decent tripod - manual focus on the moon is close enough to infinity and if you want better, try live view on a more distant celestial object.

 

[NPUK]

This is something I keep saying I will try but have no idea what settings to use, I have a D810 and 19mm lens and tripod but as for settings ???

I found this link quite useful. It seems a bit complicated at first but it's not really, the most difficult part is getting dark sky location and clear sky.

https://www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-make-an-amazing-photo-of-the-milky-way-galaxy/

I see you're from Lincolnshire..... You must be able to find some fairly dark sky out there. Give it a try because even if you don't get great results I'm sure you'll learn something from the experience.

 

[StewartR]

It's a lovely image, I'd be very happy to have taken that.

But one thing's bugging me though. Why is there such little correspondence between the stars in the reflection and the stars in the sky?

 

[MrDrizz]

It's a lovely image, I'd be very happy to have taken that.

But one thing's bugging me though. Why is there such little correspondence between the stars in the reflection and the stars in the sky?

Don't know for sure. Could because I was about 30ft above the water level.

 

[Norkie]

Looks good to me, very nice indeed

 

[Mark-Anthony]

This is something I keep saying I will try but have no idea what settings to use, I have a D810 and 19mm lens and tripod but as for settings ???

I use a D810, Nikon 20mm f1.8 and I usually do

20 seconds (500÷focal length)
Iso 6400
F2.8