Newbie question on shooting the stars

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I purchase my D3100 2 days ago with the 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses and it is my first DSLR camera so I am trying to figure out settings for various types of photography.

I am interested in astrophotography. Nothing too fancy, just photos of the stars and the moon etc. But when shooting the stars, sometimes my photos turn out very unfocused as I can't see the stars through the viewfinder or on the LCD screen because it is so dark. I have left the camera on autofocus because of these reasons. So I am shooting blind and hoping for the best basically.

What are the optimal settings to get the clearest, most effective photos for this kind of photography? Should I adjust the focus manually, and if so, how do I produce a sharp picture when I can't see the stars through the viewfinder?

I am generally shooting with the settings as follows:
18-55mm lens
Manual
ISO 800
Auto-servo AF
Single point AF
Spot metering
Active D-lighting on
Shutter speed is set to a 30 second exposure
Aperture is on F5
And of course I am using a tripod.

I could have the settings completely wrong for all I know as I'm still getting used to adjusting so many things with my DSLR!
Thanks!

Well Nick, I am actually interested in this as well, so maybe we can figure it out together From the information you have listed I can tell you that you would want the aperture as low as possible to let the most amount of light in. Also, try and crank up your ISO quite a bit more. Astro-photography can be rough depending on where you live, I never have that clear of a night sky where I am. I also hear that taking pictures of the night sky should be done no sooner that 3 hours after sundown to 3 hours before sunrise to make sure there is as little residual light as possible left over from the sun. Also, don't count on the live-view from the LCD, try and look directly through the viewfinder and if you can remotely activate the shutter release. Other than that I look forward to hearing what some of the more experienced photographers on here have to say.

Maybe these older threads might help you guys out

http://nikonites.com/general-photography-forum/2361-moon-shots.html

http://nikonites.com/photo-critique/1966-full-moon.html

On a side note turn your AF off. Your camera needs contrast to focus, at night it has no contrast so it becomes confused.

Find an object in the distance that is lit up, focus on that and switch your AF off. now your going to have a better chance at being in focus. now you can work more on your settings.

Oh yeah, your going to need a tripod, I'm assuming your using one already.

best way to do this is invest in a remote switch. set the camera to bulb and apeture around f16, ISO at 800. hold the switch for about 40 seconds and you should see the stars, if not hold switch longer. go to my night shots posting and this is what i have done so far. i would also use manual focus.

You'll want to underexpose the moon and turn off Active D lighting (and leave it off unless you have a specific need).

Thanks for the input. If the sky is clear tonight I will try your suggestions and see how it goes.

Hey Nick,
I'm an experienced astronomer and do a little astrophotography on the side (with Nikon D3100). First and foremost, you need dark skies. If you're shooting in the middle of town you won't get results.

When doing astrophotography, your camera needs to be on manual with all noise filtering and after effects OFF. The only thing that needs to be on auto is your white balance. This includes auto-focus. What you need to do is to do a full-zoom on the brightest star you can see. Right now Jupiter is high up in the south at sundown and Venus is also quite high in the west. These are great targets to focus on. Also if you photograph later in the night, you'll notice the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, also hanging down in the South. Do a full-zoom so that you can see the star in your viewer (NOT ELECTRONIC VIEWER) and manually focus on it so that it looks a sharp and pinpoint as the end of a tack. Now zoom out, place the camera on a tripod, and do an exposure up to 30 seconds (without polar-alligned tracking) and ISO1600. 800 will work if you have high light-domes and 3200 will work if you really want to pull out more from a dark sky. The Nikon handles exceptionally well. Do the exposures with a timer and remember to never use flash. If you want to "pretty" up your pictures, put a tree in the FOV and light it up with dim flashlight for a few seconds.

With practice, you'll get results like these.

I took this on at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. 30 seconds @ ISO3200


An experiment with my screw-on fisheye lens 30 seconds @ ISO1600


And when you hit the bug, you'll invest in a telescope and tracking mount. Then you can do stuff like this! This is about an hours worth of exposures that was stacked. Subs were between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. This is of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Wow, fantastic work Starg33ker!

What telescope did you use for the last shot?

Great photos and thank you for the advice! I am aiming to get similar results as the first photo you posted. I bought myself a remote shutter release cable yesterday so I will head out and do some more photography tonight providing the sky is clear. I will post my results if they are decent haha

hi
what lens would you need to get images like those above. They are fantastic and its something I would like to get into.

thanks

Here's a photo I took last night. F/3.5 ISO 1600, 30 second exposure.
It doesn't look too bad but nothing compared to starg33ker's photo. How do I get that brownish gas-like look to appear in the photo? Is it just the area of the sky you shot at or is it light pollution where I am taking the photo? Or settings on my camera? I don't expect to get fantastic results like that straight away but that kind of photo is what I am aiming for.

hi nick29.

i used the auto-level function on that photo you posted in photoshop and it looks amazing. Do you think I can "steal" it as my background?

Also I see a porch light nearby, I'm no expert, but I think you might want to turn that light off next time as well, unless it was intentional, then i must say the photo still looks amazing.

Sorry for the very late reply. I've been very busy of late. You can use the photo for your background if you like. I was just doing some test shots. The light is coming from the neighbor behind my house that they turned on as I was taking the photo.