Going to have a dark sky tonight, wanted to get some star shots.. settings?

[arcooke]

I'm going to a friend's place tonight and where he lives, the sky is much darker than where I live. I'm bringing my camera and wanted to get some nice star shots and wanted suggestions on settings to use.

I have a 50mm 1.8 prime, and my 18-105mm kit lens, and a D90. Also just got my remote shutter release in the mail, so I can use that now.

Now, I would imagine the best way to go about it would be..
1) Max out the aperture
2) Don't zoom
3) Set focus to infinity
4) Kick up the ISO
5) 3-5s Shutter speed

However, I tried similar settings the other night in my back yard, and the pictures just didn't come out very well. Granted, the sky here is bright, and you can see about 20 stars.

Any suggestions to get some decent sky shots? My goal is to get a black picture with thousands of stars, nothing else.

Thanks :thumbup:

 

[Scuba]

I wouldn't use a high iso. I would use a longer exposure with an iso of 200. Just have to be careful of too long or you will start to get streaks instead of stars. Not sure at what exposure time that starts to become a prob though.

 

[Patrice]

The stars move at a rate of 15 degrees every hour. So does not take very long at all before you start getting star trails. If you can tolerate a 3 or 4 pixel smudge as a star (maybe even more depending on you printing or viewing resolution) then you should be able to calculate the exposure time from your sensor's photocell density.

If you like start shots your 50mm lens is perfect for widefield astrophotography. Look up 'barn door' trackers, they are easy to make, inexpensive and easy to use.

 

[DerekMellott]

When I shoot the stars I shoot wide open iso 800+ 20 sec exposures. You want to stay as wide as possible and you must have something in the foreground. Do noise reduction in post.