Night shot including milky way. Any tricks?

[weltweit]

Link?

Astrophotography Image Processing 2, Clarkvision.com

clarkvision.com

 

[weltweit]

RoyReed let me know what you think of the link. I am mainly going by the fact that his images are very impressive in my decision that he knows what he is doing, I would be interested in a second opinion.

 

[RoyReed]

He obviously knows what he's talking about, but I really didn't have time to do any more than skim read that one long article. I had a quick flick through a couple of others, and I think to get the best out of his website, you'd have to read through the majority of the 40 odd articles, filtering out a lot of the obsessive technical detail.

 

[weltweit]

His position is that lenses can be graded by their light gathering capabilities according to their aperture area and that light gathering capabilities are king for astro-photography.

e.g. my 20mm f2.8, which I had thought ideal for milky way photography is 20/2.8 = 7.14

While my 50mm f1.8 is 50/1.8 = 27.77 so has a much greater capability for light gathering.
And I could get a 50mm f1.4 for not so much money 50/1.4 = 35.71

And my 85mm f1.4 is 85/1.4 = 60.71 significantly greater again.

85mm is a little long for the type of photography I have been attempting but I could probably construct a photo at 50mm. Alternatively there are 35mm f1.4 lenses I believe (35/1.4 = 25) though they seem quite pricey even used.

The take away from that part of his website is my 20mm f2.8 isn't ideal for milky way photos.

Characteristics of Best cameras and lenses for nightscape and astro photography, Clarkvision.com

clarkvision.com

 

[Supine]

Impressed with what you have so far. Better than I expected! I don't think I've ever managed a decent shot of stars.

 

[weltweit]

Impressed with what you have so far. Better than I expected! I don't think I've ever managed a decent shot of stars.

Thanks Supine, I have definitely made progress from where I started, but now I see that there is some way to go, and great potential if I can understand what to do.

 

[weltweit]

Some used lens options from mpb

My own 20mm f2.8 is 20/2.8=7.14

Nikon AF-S 20mm f/1.8G ED 20/1.8=11.11 £544.00
Nikon AF-S 24mm f/1.4G ED 24/1.4=17.14 £739.00
Nikon AF-S 28mm f/1.8G 28/1.8=15.55 £339.00
Nikon AF 35mm f/2D 35/2=17.5 £194
Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.4G 35/1.4=25 £749.00
Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G ED 35/1.8=19.44 £299.00
Nikon AF 50mm f/1.4 50/1.4=35.71 £94.00
Nikon AF 50mm f/1.4D 50/1.4=35.71 £174.00

There is no point in the 20 and the G series lenses are all expensive, the 35 f2 D for £194 looks interesting, with more than twice the light gathering of my 20mm.

 

[weltweit]

I am bumping this because it is still on subject (night shots) and I expect to have another go at Milky Way photos shortly.

However, my computer just failed and I now have a new and fresh PC, lost all my previous set up and programs though, including a "free star stacks program" which I used on one occasion to stack 180 odd photos - annoyingly I can't remember what it was called.

Anyone know of free star stacker programs?

 

[Signal 11]

Anyone know of free star stacker programs?

DeepSkyStacker is probably the most commonly used on Windows.

StarStaX is good if you want to have a go at star trails.

 

[weltweit]

Hi Signal 11, that is great, thanks so much. Looking at their intro pages it might have been StarStaX that I used before, not 100% sure. It was a piece of software I didn't use very regularly.