First Milky Way photos with the D750

[jsecordphoto]

Went out this past weekend to a spot along the coast of Maine I found last year, that is fairly free of light pollution compared to most of the surrounding area. Milky Way photos are a little more difficult right now than they are in the summer, mostly just because it's so damn cold and it's only visible for about an hour early in the morning before sunrise starts to wash it out.

First I wanted to both test out how the 50mm 1.8g would be for some night images, and see how the D750 handled super high ISO. This was at iso12,800/ f2/ 8 seconds. Doesn't look too bad! I definitely want to try some more stuff like this with some more interesting foregrounds at 50mm...so much detail in the MW! The green light on the horizon is a ship, I believe

And here's more of a standard shot. 16mm- ISO3200/ f2.8/ 25 seconds for the sky, ISO1600/ f2.8/ 4 minutes for the foreground

here's to another great year of astrophotography!

 

[MSnowy]

Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.

 

[jsecordphoto]

Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.

I see you've got the 14-24....probably the best ultra-wide lens for this type of stuff. The tricky thing is always finding a location free of light pollution. I spend a lot of time shooting up in northern NH, like Pittsburg/Colebrook north, and it's insane how dark it is up there. Plus now that I have the Tamron it'll be even more fun...lots of wildlife up there

 

[astroNikon]

You're doing something seriously wrong.
Send me your d750 .. for a quick test, around 2-3 .. years
and I'll have it right back to you after that !!

Nice pics
I love the 2nd one with the Long Exposure with the rocks/water.

 

[jsecordphoto]

You're doing something seriously wrong.
Send me your d750 .. for a quick test, around 2-3 .. years
and I'll have it right back to you after that !!

Nice pics
I love the 2nd one with the Long Exposure with the rocks/water.

Hah, thanks man! I can't wait for this summer, lots of cool locations in mind for Milky Way images. Hopefully it'll be a little warmer too...it was right around 0 degrees on this trip

 

[pgriz]

Very impressive! Well, now that you've got the appropriate equipment, perhaps the next investment would be a plane ticket to a place like Chile. They have some killer dark skies PLUS the galaxy is overhead...

 

[MSnowy]

I might try it if I go to my brothers camp in northern Maine. It's 10 miles from the nearest streetlight and 18 miles from the nearest town. If there's no moon it's so dark, you can barely see your hand in front of your face.

 

[jsecordphoto]

Very impressive! Well, now that you've got the appropriate equipment, perhaps the next investment would be a plane ticket to a place like Chile. They have some killer dark skies PLUS the galaxy is overhead...

Yeah that would be an incredible trip. I'm always a little jealous of the photographers getting Milky Way images in the southern hemisphere, it just looks way cooler to me with the core right in the middle of the arch. Maybe someday...

 

[jsecordphoto]

I might try it if I go to my brothers camp in northern Maine. It's 10 miles from the nearest streetlight and 18 miles from the nearest town. If there no moon it's so dark, you can barely see your hand in front of your face.

Music to my ears! It takes so much less work bringing out detail in the Milky Way when shooting in areas like that. I'll never forget the first trip we made up to Pittsburg...a perfect spring night with not a breath of wind, that was the first time I had ever seen the Milky Way reflecting off a lake clearly with the naked eye. It's a shame not many people ever get to see that, it's an amazing experience

 

[Matt Glick]

Solid shots. Milky Way photos are on my to do list!

 

[MikeFlorendo]

Very nice I have the same camera and the 14-24 2.8 and 50mm 1.4. Great shots but maybe try lower iso. I shot some last Nov. at iso 800. There is a bit of trailing on the 2nd are you sure the exposure was 25 seconds on the sky at 16mm? You shouldn't have had trailing that is noticeable unless you enlarged the photo pretty big.

Solid shots!

 

[runnah]

You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.

 

[Derrel]

Oh, wow, those are nice. I really like the foreground rocks on the second shot. The ship at the horizon really adds a nice detail to my way of thinking! I hope you really enjoy the D750.

 

[jsecordphoto]

Very nice I have the same camera and the 14-24 2.8 and 50mm 1.4. Great shots but maybe try lower iso. I shot some last Nov. at iso 800. There is a bit of trailing on the 2nd are you sure the exposure was 25 seconds on the sky at 16mm? You shouldn't have had trailing that is noticeable unless you enlarged the photo pretty big.

Solid shots!

ISO800? Even shooting in areas with basically 0 light pollution that wouldn't be enough. The lowest I'll shoot sky exposures at in dark areas is iso2500. Sure you might get a decent exposure of just the stars at iso800, but none of the nebulosity will be present in the MW core. In the 2nd photo I believe you're seeing a bit of comatic aberration in the corner that looks like trailing

 

[jsecordphoto]

You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.

Oh I'll be spending a good amount of time up there this year. There's a chance I'll be co-hosting a workshop in Acadia for a week in June, and then I'll be spending about a month in Phippsburg again. I'm hoping to make it up to Baxter state park this year too