How do I take photos in pitch black?

[Solarflare]

I recently bought my camera (Nikon D7000), and I always wanted to take pictures of the stars. However, I cannot figure out how to make the camera take the picture. I think that when the camera can't find the depth of view or something to focus on, then it won't take the picture. Therefore, when it is night out and I want to take a picture to capture the stars, the camera will not snap a photo.
I don't know if there is a setting in my camera that is not allowing that or if I to fool the camera to take a picture. I would really appreciate some help. Thank you.

Easy !

1. Disable autofocus... well theoretically you can already shoot now, but you want the pictures to be sharp, too.
2. Lifeview
3. Magnify 100%
4. Focus per hand until the stars are tack sharp

=> Now you can shoot stars all night long.

You can also enable "release priority" in your menu instead of "focus priority", that means the camera will always release instantly no matter if it has acquired focus or not, whenever you press the release button. But that wont give you sharp pictures because the camera autofocus is too stupid to focus on stars.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

For stars I manually focus at infinity,f stop wide open and shutter from 2-8 seconds. Using the timer I just depress the shutter release and place the camera on it's back on the ground and back out of frame. Wait until shutter does it's thing and bracket. Surprising how well that works.

 

[photoboy2005]

I recently bought my camera (Nikon D7000), and I always wanted to take pictures of the stars. However, I cannot figure out how to make the camera take the picture. I think that when the camera can't find the depth of view or something to focus on, then it won't take the picture. Therefore, when it is night out and I want to take a picture to capture the stars, the camera will not snap a photo.
I don't know if there is a setting in my camera that is not allowing that or if I to fool the camera to take a picture. I would really appreciate some help. Thank you.

Well, here's your main problem, you are trying to make the camera take the photo for you. You have to take the photo with the camera...

-Mobile Matt