Milky Way!

Ash Telecaster · May 26, 2019

Hello friends,

With your generous help I have now successfully photographed a bird, a landscape, the moon, a fuzzy waterfall, and now I want to photograph the Milky Way!

I am using a Canon M50.

There is a designated dark sky park about an hour and a half from my home which I went to Friday night. I was able to get lots of photos of stars but nothing resembling the Milky Way. I have a few theories about that but they are probably all wrong.

I plan on trying again tonight.

Lenses:
I was using Canons 50mm f/1.8 lens with the Viltrox speed adapter. I felt it was too tight. I have a Canon 22mm f/2 lens that I plan on trying. I'm also considering buying a Rokinon RK12M-M 12mm F2.0.

The concern I have regarding the 22mm is that the lens opening is so small and the lens itself looks like a toy compared to other lenses. Does that matter? Do you think I would get a significantly better result with the 12mm?

Now the most important part; what settings would you recommend?

Thank you!!!

Below is a star pic from Friday night for reference...

And a pic from before the clouds cleared up. It was actually super dark but that 50mm f1.8 did an amazing job in low light!

Grandpa Ron · May 26, 2019

I have shot the auroras with an f 3.2, 30 sec. ISO 1800.

I would start with that and dark sky's

Good luck

TCampbell · May 27, 2019

The bright star in the middle of your field of view is Vega. I can see the constellation Lyra in the image.

Here is the plate-solve for your image (this is your image ... but the plate-solving software annotated it):

Here's a sky section below and I've put an orange box to approximate the section that you imaged (this isn't precise). You can see that there was a thin section of Milky Way just below your image. The densest area of the Milky Way is near Sagittarius. For shots just after dark, this section shows up best in July. But it will also be in a good position if you're willing to stay out until 2-3am. This is a good week to image it because we're in the Last Quarter moon phase (New Moon is June 3) which means currently the moon isn't rising until after 3am (and roughly an hour later each day) so you'll have no moon in the sky to create light pollution.

Clear Skies!
Tim

Grandpa Ron · May 28, 2019

I was trying to take advantage of my light pollution by taking photo's by sky glow. That is a topic for another day.

During that experiment I captured two shots I called "Orion over the barn". They are both shot at f 4.5 for 30 seconds. The first is ISO 1600, the second is ISO 3200.

This might give you a starting point for exposure.

Night time photos are a hoot, if the mosquitoes are not out.

Ash Telecaster · May 28, 2019

TCampbell said:
The bright star in the middle of your field of view is Vega. I can see the constellation Lyra in the image.

Here is the plate-solve for your image (this is your image ... but the plate-solving software annotated it):

View attachment 173724

Here's a sky section below and I've put an orange box to approximate the section that you imaged (this isn't precise). You can see that there was a thin section of Milky Way just below your image. The densest area of the Milky Way is near Sagittarius. For shots just after dark, this section shows up best in July. But it will also be in a good position if you're willing to stay out until 2-3am. This is a good week to image it because we're in the Last Quarter moon phase (New Moon is June 3) which means currently the moon isn't rising until after 3am (and roughly an hour later each day) so you'll have no moon in the sky to create light pollution.
View attachment 173727
Clear Skies!
Tim

Wow, Tim, that's amazing!

I have a star tracker app on my cell but I thought it might be lying to me. One of my theories was that the visible Milky Way was too low in the Southern hemisphere where there still some clouds and some ambient from a distant town or something.

Sounds like that is a viable theory. I plan on trying again this Friday if the weather is going my way.

Plate solving, I will have to look into that.

Getting the Milky Way was my mission but I'm wondering if I can get other Astral bodies, like Jupiter, with a good enough telephoto lens? I have a 300mm and a doubler.

Thanks for the Specacular and informative post!

TCampbell · May 29, 2019

The plate-solving software is something you can download -or- they have an online website where you can just upload the file, wait a few minutes while the server analyzes the stars, and then download the results.

This page will give you those choices: Astrometry.net

The other plate-solving solution I know of is AstroTortilla.

wfooshee · May 29, 2019

If it's dark enough, you'll know where the Milky Way is! It's easily naked eye in a dark sky. But as was said earlier, Find Sagittarius. Right now, Jupiter and Saturn are to either side of Sagittarius, so that part's easy...

Ash Telecaster · May 30, 2019

TCampbell said:
The plate-solving software is something you can download -or- they have an online website where you can just upload the file, wait a few minutes while the server analyzes the stars, and then download the results.

This page will give you those choices: Astrometry.net

The other plate-solving solution I know of is AstroTortilla.

Thanks again Tim. That is valuable information. I had no idea this software existed!

Ash Telecaster · May 30, 2019

wfooshee said:
If it's dark enough, you'll know where the Milky Way is! It's easily naked eye in a dark sky. But as was said earlier, Find Sagittarius. Right now, Jupiter and Saturn are to either side of Sagittarius, so that part's easy...

It's good to have an "anchor." I could easily recognize constellations like the big dipper or Hercules. I couldn't seem to figure out where the Milky Way should be. I'll get it with a little practice.

Original katomi · May 30, 2019

There are some good phone apps both iOS and android that you can use for astronomy I use puniverse and planets

Ash Telecaster · May 30, 2019

I'll give those a try, thanks!

TCampbell · May 31, 2019

PhotoPills is a good phone app for planning composition of Milky Way shots (it has augmented reality so it shows you the image of your scene ... but overlays where the Milky Way would appear on date/time you pick.

There's also Sky Safari (my favorite for all-around astronomy stuff). On iOS Sky Safari also support augmented reality (the Android version does not ... at least not yet.) The basic Sky Safari is free. There is a 'Plus' and 'Pro' version that are not free.

BasilFawlty · May 31, 2019

I second PhotoPills - almost a must have for planning Milky Way photos.

Ash Telecaster · Jun 3, 2019

I tried to get some star shots this weekend but the weather was against me. Maybe this coming weekend.

BasilFawlty · Jun 3, 2019

Ash Telecaster said:
I tried to get some star shots this weekend but the weather was against me. Maybe this coming weekend.

When I first bought my SkyGuider to take longer exposures of stars, it was over a week before weather was clear enough to attempt it! Frustrating when the weather doesn't cooperate. Are you trying to shoot Milkyway or just star trailes, or something else?