UKC

OK, I am sat on a beach on Northumberland and I am hoping to get s shot of the Milky Way.

Never done this before so I would appreciate some advice, especially as there is a fookin bright full moon right by it.

At least I can see Saturn

I have a 35mm lens stopped down to f2.2.
It will go all the way to 1.8 but I read somewhere to stop up for a sharper image.

Any advice would be a great help.

In reply to The Lemming:



The Olde Ship Inn, main St, Seahouses. Great old fashioned boozer!

In reply to The Lemming:

This helped me

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6741

In reply to The Lemming:

Point the camera in the opposite direction to the moon, so you stand some chance of seeing the Milky Way. Eg line up the field of view with Cassiopeia, which is easy to see in the NE and is aligned with the Milky Way quite nicely.

Lock off the tripod, and try a 20 second exposure. Iso 400 will do. See if it comes out and check the focus on the camera screen by zooming in.

No point doing longer exposures than 20 seconds as the stars will trail. No point going above Iso 400 as the moon will probably over-expose the sky.

It won't come out with much contrast, but if you take many pictures and stack them with deep sky stacker you might be able to stretch the histogram to help with that a bit.
It's not the best of nights with the moon almost full but if the air is very clear where you are then it might be OK, but your combination of mid-summer, northern latitude and full moon all work against you.

You'll see a reasonable chunk of the Milky Way in with a 35mm lens but you should be able to frame Cassiopeia or Cygnus the Swan nicely which contain the Milky Way. The very best images use ultrawide angle lenses or painstakingly constructed mosaics.

Experiment, the exposure time, Iso and shutter speed are not critical and digital film is free. You can see how you're doing on the screen straight away!

In reply to The Lemming:

Got a spare £20K ?

You'll see things you would not believe.......

http://froknowsphoto.com/canon_4_million_iso/

In reply to The Lemming:
I usually shoot when there is no moon, 2.8-4 depending on lens, ISO around 1600

In reply to The Lemming:



Normally stopping down means making the aperture smaller e.g stopping down to f22

You 'open up' by going from say, f8 to f4 - and 'wide open' is maximum aperture size, e.g. f 1.8 (lens specific)

Hope you got some great shots.

In reply to The Lemming:

Evening all, got WiFi from The Craster Arms in Beadnell and listening to some dude belt out Neil Diamond and jolly good too.

As for last night, to say it was a learning curve would be optimistic.

I had a huge moon reflected off a massive mirror that was the sea. Add to that the only clear night of the week, clouded over at midnight.

But, I was able to identify the moon.

And I found the Andromeda galaxy, Saturn and a satellite.

My 35mm lens was probably too zoomy, as it just about captured the plough. I swapped over to my zoom lens that let me go down to 18mm at the expense of a slower lens.

Next time, I will go somewhere darker with a new moon. There was no light pollution but the moon did a great job reflecting off the sea.

Thanks for the helpful advice which I will use in a month or so.

Cheers

In reply to The Lemming:


Maybe try it out in 14 days time, otherwise you will have another full Moon to look at, and become incandescent yourself.

In reply to The Lemming: You may find this useful.


https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/ribblehead-viaduct-for-stars-milk...

In reply to icnoble:

Interesting. And an excellent spot to shoot the night's sky too.

Thanks for the link.

In reply to The Lemming:

As you can see the next optimum date is Friday August 14th.

In reply to icnoble:

Sadly I'm on a Night Shift. But I could do the 11th or 18th.

Here's hoping.

In reply to The Lemming:

There should be a few Perseid meteors around as well should you get clear skies.

In reply to The Lemming:

This could be useful for planning:

The Photographer's Ephemeris
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crookneckconsulting.tpean...

In reply to The Lemming:




For identifying stars and planets on the spot, SkyGuide for iPad and Star Chart for iPhone etc, are fantastically clever, useful, interesting and beautiful. Utterly brilliant. i've run out of superlatives now.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:



You need to brush up on your yoof speak and quote "Dead good"



Unfortunately all my kit is Android however I use the app called Stellarium. Its free for Windows, OS X and Linux. Sadly its not free for Android but the app is worth every penny I paid.

http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

In reply to The Lemming:

Go back and try when there's no moon. Wide angle lens, as long an exposure as you can do - 30 seconds at least. Fiddle with ISO till you get a balance between exposure and "noise".

In reply to dek:

Keep walking and try The Schooner.

In reply to The Lemming:

If you've not already have a look at: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6741

Have fun!

In reply to James Rushforth:

I keep dipping into that article from time to time as it's very informative.

Don't suppose you could suggest a wide angle lens that isn't too astronomical on the pocket ?

In reply to The Lemming: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/lenses/samyang14.html

In reply to The Lemming:
Judging by the latest demos from Canon you should be able to get a new camera in a couple of years then just point it vaguely upwards and snap!

youtube.com/watch?v=Rd-L5WBjODw&

In reply to The Lemming:

As Brian says the Samyang 14mm is amazing value for money. My first go to lens when I started night photography. Probably the 3rd or 4th best night lens out there, and 4/5 times cheaper than any of the competitors.

In reply to James Rushforth:

The Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 is also worth a look if you are on a budget. It has a bit of distortion at the edges but gives v sharp images.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Yes, I think that would be the logical DX / crop frame choice.

The Samyang 14mm for full frame.

In reply to James Rushforth:

I should have made the fact it was a crop sensor lens clearer. The samyang is one I want to look at if and when I ever get around to affording a full frame camera.

In reply to Brian:
Interesting. While on holiday last week I read a blog by an American who sang the praises of a samyang lens and how good they were for night time photography.

I shall check them out.

Cheers


edit

On second thoughts, I think that I would need the training-wheels on any lenses that I buy. The idea of fully manual frightens the willies out of me.

In reply to The Lemming: You need to focus manually a night with auto focus lens !

In reply to Brian:
What's wrong with focusing in good light, before locking down the lens with duct tape, as well as turning off auto focus?

Works for me.


Otherwise my viewfinder is too small and too dark to see anything.

In reply to The Lemming:

Do you have live view? Some cameras are able to see bright stars quite well with live view - it's the approach I usually use now as not all my lenses have hard stops.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Never thought of that. I may give it a try, however it does not work all that well in good light.

In reply to The Lemming:

Well, its a clear night and no moon till 2am.

I may go out and play locally and see what happens.

In reply to The Lemming:

Here's a bit of verbal diarrhea for you:
I'd recommend not leaving it open for the full 30 seconds, aim for under 20 seconds to avoid star trails. 2.2 is probably a good stop. Maybe try bumping up one more. Usually lenses are sharpest 2 stops above their max. With that, play with ISO to get the desired amount of light. Of course a tripod is useful. As is a remote shutter or a timer function built into the camera. Pressing down the shutter can actually cause noticeable shake. Best of luck to you. Be sure to report back with photos, or at least a report!

In reply to meliasen:
Just got to decide where to go on the Fylde this evening.


Sodding clouds.

In reply to meliasen:


'Of course a tripod is useful' for exposures of up to 20 seconds ! ! !

Sounds like a new use of the term 'useful' to me.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:



Why? You can just leave the camera on the ground pointing at the sky, or on a few pebbles to adjust the angle. I've done this many times.

In reply to Nutkey:

How misguided those people were from the earliest days of photography and cinematography for inventing the tripod

The pebbles approach is desperately awkward and only suitable for a very light modern, digital camera.

The next best thing to a tripod was always a beanbag, particularly the type you could pump out with a bulb press (I think made by Jessops), so that the beanbag turned rock solid, moulded to the shape of the camera.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:


You were the one who implied it was essential.


I must be imagining the times I've done it with my SLR then.