Post your Milky Way shots

Since tonight is a "new moon", I figured I'd start a thread dedicated to Milky Way images.

I captured this night before last up near the top of the pass.

Beauty! Love it. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a spot around here that I could go set up for a Milky Way shot.

I absolutely love it. I don't imagine with my location and equipment I can get a decent one but I'm gonna try.

If you've never taken star photos, here's a couple of hints that will help. First, take your lens out during the day and focus on something as far away as you can see, maybe the moon or distant mountains, and take note of where your lens focuses at on distant objects. Some people even put a piece of blue tape to mark the spot. That way you'll know where to set your focus when you point it at the stars. (also - be sure to switch off your AF). Some people say open your lens all the way up but I tend to stop it down a half stop (this is a personal choice, I suppose) and feel it gives me a slightly sharper star "dot" than when I set it wide open. I set my ISO at 3200 and my shutter speed at 20-25 secs. Any longer than 25-30 secs and your stars will start to look like little tadpoles. Also, be sure to overlap your exposures more than you typically do for panoramas since it seems the algorithms have a harder time stitching together overlapping stars than it does landscapes. On that note, be sure to turn your "long exposure" noise reduction off if you're planning on making a panorama. The in-body NR doesn't seem to be any better than what you can obtain by using Nik, LR or PS, so no need to wait between shots (IMO). And finally, I always use a 3 sec exposure delay even when I'm using a remote shutter release. It gives the body/tripod system time to settle down after the mirror slap.

Good luck and remember to bring a flash light with you. And also remember to keep checking your focus throughout the shoot because it's very easy to knock it off a tiny bit.

Sittin by the campfire

Scott, thanks for the heads up on the Rokinon 14mm, I am loving that lens

Photohiker said:

Scott, thanks for the heads up on the Rokinon 14mm, I am loving that lens

Click to expand...

Pleasure mate its a great lens for night shots thats for sure just dont tell too many people

I really want to try this but I don't know if I can get a good shot in Tampa Florida!

Is the milky way only visible at certain times of the year, specifically in the Big Bend, TX area?

Teamfour said:

Is the milky way only visible at certain times of the year, specifically in the Big Bend, TX area?

Click to expand...

Hard to answer precisely, other than to say July may be the best month in the US, when the best part of Milky Way is highest in the sky in early evening. It is always up there, almost any month, but the sky rotation from eastern horizon to western horizon takes 12 hours, so where it is will vary, low or high, in East or high in center, or in the West. So a couple of months either way works, but months change the time of night is best height. We see two parts, in summer looking in at center, or in winter looking out at edge. The best part (center of the business) is in constellation Sagittarius, fairly low in the south in the summer. Maybe November in the winter, but summer is better. Avoid times when the moon is up.

Here is the overall idea: "The Milky Way: Winter vs. Summer" by Kwon O Chul (TWAN)

Those are fisheye horizon to horizon pictures, winter left, and summer right. And the sky rotates all night, east to west.

Probably the best advice would be to spend $10 on this:
The Night Sky 30°-40° (Large; North Latitude): David S. Chandler, David Chandler Company, Milky Way by Don Davis: 9780961320751: Amazon.com: Books

It's a little like a circular slide rule, to be used to find things when out star gazing. The darker blue streak seen is the Milky Way. A star map, based on the clock. There are more detailed maps, but this tool rotates and computes and shows what is up there overhead at any month and hour. It shows the sky you can see - hold it overhead, and it shows what is where. You can learn to use it at home from the stars you CAN see. Big Bend latitude is about 29 degrees, so this should work fine. You need to be out where it is pretty dark to see everything well... like a couple hundred miles from any large metropolitan area. Maybe only 10 or 20 miles from a smaller town, unless a metropolitan area is nearby. But you can't overlook the Milky Way in a dark sky... instead, you duck so your head won't bump it.

WayneF said:

But you can't overlook the Milky Way in a dark sky... instead, you duck so your head won't bump it.

Click to expand...

Wayne, thanks! I found a great open source program called Stellarium. I was able to enter the lat/long, date and time of my visit. Then the software shows you the sky. It looks like the really good part of the MW will be 3/4 visible in the SW sky. Don't think I will a problem getting a dark sky in Big Bend. I hope to get some great photos to share here.

stellarium is a great program and its free if using windows. i had to pay like 2.00 to get on android os. but once i have my telescope set up and have stellarium on i can click a button on screen and autoslew to it and lock onto it all night long for viewing or photography

Finally the proper environment. Had planned various astro outings only to be outwitted by mother nature and come up empty handed. This morning turned out to be a winner.

Where to go for night sky photography? Check here to see how your area fairs: Blue Marble Navigator - Night Lights 2012

A new movement has emerged to conserve the dark skies. This website has information concerning this issue.

http://darksky.org

Here is a list of officially designated areas for dark sky observations. Nineteen today, up from nine in 2011.

There is one listed in Scotland, one in Northumberland and two in Hungary. The rest are in the US.



Big Bend National Park: Texas, USA
Chaco Culture National Historical Park: New Mexico, USA
Cherry Springs State Park: Pennsylvania, USA
Clayton Lake State Park: New Mexico, USA
Copper Breaks State Park: Texas, USA
Death Valley National Park: California, USA
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area: Texas, USA
Galloway Forest Park: Scotland, UK
Goldendale Observatory Park: Washington, USA
Hortobagy National Park: Hungary
Hovenweep National Monument: Utah-Colorado, USA
Mayland Community College Blue Ridge Observatory and Star Park: NC, USA
Natural Bridges National Monument: Utah, USA
Northumberland Park/Kielder Water Forest Park: Northumberland, England
Observatory Park: Ohio, USA
Oracle State Park: Arizona, USA
Parashant International Night Sky Province: Arizona, USA
The Headlands: Michigan, USA
Zselic National Landscape Protection Area: Hungary

Handy tools for planning your night of astrophotography:

· Moon rise and set times - Moonrise and Moonset Calculator Enter your location in the search box

· Satellite photo of earth at night - Blue Marble Navigator - Night Lights 2012 Drag the map to your location with mouse

· Spot the International Space Station (ISS) - NASA-SpotTheStation Enter your location information in the search box

· Spot Iridium Flares - Iridium Flares Change to your location in the upper right corner of the web page

· Stellarium is a great freeware program with many tools, just dig right into it and discover what you can - Stellarium Select the download link from choices across the top of the web page, Linux, OS X, Windows 32bit, Windows 64bit, Ubuntu and Beta 0.14.0. This program gives you a visual of the sky pretty much anywhere, anytime, on any date.

· Exposure calculator for moon shots, it is a starting point but you may need to adjust up or down to suit your style - http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/astronomy/MoonExposureCalculator.html

· Camera settings calculator - http://www.tl-photography.at/stars/night-sky-photography-shutter-speed-calculator/ Again, this gives you a starting point to work up or down from.

· Google for any other aspect you are interested in.

Another mostly clear night

Went out for Iridium flares and took a couple of the MW too.