Night Photography / Milky Way Shots

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Jack Dickens

New member
Greetings fellow Nikon users!

I recently purchased an iOptron SkyTracker in hopes of doing some nifty dark sky photography. Not star trails, but some milky way type shots and possibly some deep space stuff.

The SkyTracker will allow me to 'follow my target' without getting the trails normally associated with leaving the shutter open for long periods at night.

I am using a D90 with the 18-70mm kit lens off my old D70.

Can anyone help me with what settings I should be using on my camera to get the best possible milky way type shots? Any suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated!
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
There are some great shots around in the forum.
Use the search feature, get to know the members better and you'll get over educated pretty soon :)

but that looks really cool.. can you give extra information on how it works and stuff??
 
J

Jack Dickens

New member
So I've been reading a little and I've concluded that I should set my ISO as high as possible and f-stop and low as possible... Right?

And I read somewhere to turn off 'Auto ISO' and something about turning off 'White Balance'?

WhiteLight - The iOptron SkyTracker basically tracks the sky at the same speed the Earth spins. So I can leave my shutter open for longer without getting star trails.
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
There is no need to set your ISO as high as possible. I'd start by setting the ISO at its lowest setting w/o getting into a Lo setting. This should give you the least amount of ISO noise in your photo. You can experiment by increasing your ISO, though. However, increased time of exposure will increase noise levels in your photo. Do turn Auto ISO off.


Your lens should have an optimum aperture setting, which is usually a stop or two down from the maximum aperture. This aperture will give you the optimum optics for your lens, therefore the optimum image on your sensor. So stop your lens down a bit, but don't fear changing it either.


For White Balance, I prefer setting it to a cooler color temperature. These settings should give you a bluer or whiter star field, as apposed to a warmer color temperature setting giving a red/orange cast.

Experiment, by getting close and then change settings one at a time.

Good luck.
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
Sorry, but i don't agree Whiskeyman..
Keeping a low ISO may keep the noise out, but it keeps the light out too...
Since you are shooting stars, most of which are invisible to the naked eye, the camera sensor needs more 'bees' to collect the 'honey' so as to speak.
So a fail proof setting to get you kicked off-

Keep the ISO at the highest level you are comfortable with (800-4000)
The Aperture needs to be at the biggest value like 2.8 or 3.5 or whatever is possible with your lens.
Shutter speed ideally should be between 15-30 secs... anything more you would get star trails
Use the widest lens available, on your 18-70 at 18mm
You'll defy need a tripod & a remote release if available

If your lens has a focussing ring, focus it just beyond infinity or focus manually on a bright star in the sky & lock it

Dont be afraid to experiment... so what if your pic is washed out or fully dark, it's just a digital print.
 
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STM

Senior Member
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if digital sensors suffer from reciprocity effect during very long exposures like film does?
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
WhiteLight said:
Sorry, but i don't agree Whiskeyman..
Click to expand...

No need for that. Your opinion is just as worthy as mine here. I was primarily trying to address his specific questions, so I didn't include a lot of the items you did, like using a tripod and a remote release and setting the focus , which are absolutely necessary.

I will ask you to go back to his original post and pay attention to the sky tracker he is utilizing in reference to your shutter speed advice. They shouldn't need to worry about star trails if his camera is placed on this equipment. They still need to limit exposure times, as you suggest, to reduce noise.

However, when I work with the local astronomy club, using cameras mounted on clock drive mounts, I hardly ever use an ISO above 400 and always stop the lens aperture down to reduce spherical aberrations. If needed, multiple exposures can be taken if the camera is capable of that. With my D90, I just don't like the results when using an ISO setting of over 800.
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
Whiskeyman said:
No need for that. Your opinion is just as worthy as mine here. I was primarily trying to address his specific questions, so I didn't include a lot of the items you did, like using a tripod and a remote release and setting the focus , which are absolutely necessary.

I will ask you to go back to his original post and pay attention to the sky tracker he is utilizing in reference to your shutter speed advice. They shouldn't need to worry about star trails if his camera is placed on this equipment. They still need to limit exposure times, as you suggest, to reduce noise.

However, when I work with the local astronomy club, using cameras mounted on clock drive mounts, I hardly ever use an ISO above 400 and always stop the lens aperture down to reduce spherical aberrations. If needed, multiple exposures can be taken if the camera is capable of that. With my D90, I just don't like the results when using an ISO setting of over 800.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
My post above was entirely independent of the sky tracker, just sky photography.
In my first post i noted i would like to know more about it.

In that case, the exposure times can be of any duration?
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
WhiteLight said:
Interesting.
My post above was entirely independent of the sky tracker, just sky photography.
In my first post i noted i would like to know more about it.

In that case, the exposure times can be of any duration?
Click to expand...

Up to the point that the noise in the sensor from the time exposure becomes too much, I believe that is the case.
 
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WhiteLight

Senior Member
Thanks Whiskeyman.. something really cool to know..
i would've stayed under the impression that there wouldn't be all that much of a diff with the addon..
any chance of some pics or links to them?? am guessing they would be amazing.
Like Dave said, it would be awesome to play with this
 
W

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
WhiteLight said:
Thanks Whiskeyman.. something really cool to know..
i would've stayed under the impression that there wouldn't be all that much of a diff with the addon..
any chance of some pics or links to them?? am guessing they would be amazing.
Like Dave said, it would be awesome to play with this
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't have any. They were using one of the astronomy club member's camera, and after some initial problems and much experimentation, we achieved success.

I left them my e-mail address and they promised to send me images, but I haven't heard from them since February. I need to visit one of their monthly meetings and see if I can get some of the images.

If I do get them, I'll post some on this thread.
 
J

Jack Dickens

New member
Okay... I gave it a try last night and I'm a little frustrated. Can someone maybe tell me why the Milky Way isn't showing up in this shot? I could see the Milky Way with nothing more than my eyes and I could see it thru my view finder, but this is what my camera captured after a rather LONG time lapse...

D90 35mm f1.8 ISO400 301.6 second exposure (right at 5 minute exposure)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

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Dave_W

The Dude
This doesn't seem right. At 5 minutes your stars should look like lines rather than spots. But outside this strangeness, you're way over exposing your shots. Keep it closer to 25 secs otherwise your stars will start looking like tadpoles.

Here's a general recipe that you can use and adjust as needed

ISO = 2000
t= 25 sec
f stop = 1/2 to 1 stop smaller than wide open (gives you a slightly sharper image)
 
J

Jack Dickens

New member
I am using an Ioptron Skytracker, which moves my camera at the same speed the stars move so I don't get star trails... I thought that I the longer the exposure the more detail I would get?
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Jack Dickens said:
I am using an Ioptron Skytracker, which moves my camera at the same speed the stars move so I don't get star trails... I thought that I the longer the exposure the more detail I would get?
Click to expand...

Maybe we should take this conversation to a separate thread so we don't hijack this one. Start a new one and I'll follow up.
 
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