Milky Way photography

[Ian]

Having nailed my technique for star trail photography last year my next ambition is to photograph the Milky Way - our very own galaxy

I know this will require a very dark night with the minimum of light pollution and so a lot of planning ahead is required but I was also curious to know if anyone here has previously had a go (devilgas? ).

Ian

[veggiesosage]

Re: Milku Way photography

I did have a go once but with not very good results

Milky Way by veggiesosage, on Flickr

Basically, the dark skies is key, something I didn't really have in the attempt above.

Other than that, the main issue is getting enough light in when you're limited with exposure time because in this case you don't want star trails!

Good luck!

[Ian]

Re: Milky Way photography

That's not bad!

Yes - I think you need a fast lens and high ISO - what were the settings you used?

Ian

[veggiesosage]

Re: Milky Way photography

30s shutter, f/4 ap and iso 500. Lens was 10mm as well.

[devilgas]

Re: Milky Way photography

not something i've had much success with as there's too much light pollution where i live, however my approach would be this.....

dark skies - an absolute must!
you need to know where the galactic disc is in the sky. currently at around midnight, it runs north - east - south at a max elevation of about 30 deg (NE-ESE being the area of worst light pollution in my garden) - download and install stellarium for a great, free astro program.
wide angle lens, pref with lockable zoom to stop it creeping
widest aperture you can muster
high iso setting (1600 or 3200)
multiple 'light' exposures of 15-30 seconds - do a test shot first to determine what level of detail you can capture at a specific exposure, then shoot all of your 'lights' at that exposure
at least 8 'dark' exposures of the same shutter speed (lens cap on, eyepiece covered if DSLR)
then you get to play with a free bit of software called Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) which will combine the light frames (reducing ISO noise) and the dark frames (thermal noise / dead pixels). it does take a LOT of playing with to get decent results, but is worth the effort when you suddenly see the results of what it can do.
you could probably use registax instead, but for 'fuzzies' i always use DSS.

shutter speeds need to be relatively short, but with a wide angle lens, star trailing shouldn't be too much of a problem with exposures upto 30s.
finally, keep an eye out for condensation forming on the lens. if possible, leave the camera outside for an hour or so before shooting so that it can get to ambient temperature. you'll still need to check for the dew point being reached and forming on the optics (as per my star trails shot earlier this year) however, as you're not shooting for hours, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

hth!