Next round of star photos, crit please

[PersistentNomad]

Taken at Walnut Hill Park at the Salute to Women Memorial Rose Garden in New Britain, CT

D5000, 18mm f4.5 at 15 seconds ISO 160

D5000, 18mm f11 at 30 seconds ISO 200

D5000, 18mm f8 at 30 seconds ISO 200

D5000, 18mm f8 at 76 seconds ISO 200

 

[crzyfotopeeple]

There is camera movement in all of them.

 

[bboyzala]

try using a tripod instead so that you can reduce the camera movement. that way you can have a longer exposure too

 

[Scatterbrained]

A few thoughts:
One, take a bright flashlight with you to help you focus the camera. I carry a very bright LED flashlight to light up my foreground subjects so I can see them well enough to focus on them.

Two: The moon is actually pretty bright. This brightness will light up the whole sky (that blueness showing up in your images) and drown out some of the stars. For star field images it's best to do your shooting during a new moon. We should have another new moon on the 30th. You don't necessarily need to wait until then, but at least wait until the moon isn't so full. It should be at it's fullest for this cycle tomorrow night.

Three: I don't know the sensor performance of the D5000, but generally you'll want to have a higher iso than 100-400. I shoot stars between iso 1600 and iso 6400 and between f/2.8 and f/4. Even then I'm running 15 to 30 second exposures. Again, I don't know how your camera will handle that, but on a moonless night it should be alright.

 

[PersistentNomad]

In my previous star post, someone else had recommended the higher ISO, and I took a shot like that first thing. Unfortunately, it was so windy and there is so much light pollution in NB, that it ended up looking like a blurry daytime photo at 15sec. I tried a few others at higher ISOs, but I just wasn't feeling them and I'm also kind of digging the super dramatic darkness. So for these early ones it may just be a stylistic preference I'm developing. Who knows, I'm certainly not ruling it out, though.

I definitely noticed a difference in last night's moon brightness vs. a few days ago. Re: focus, I wasn't too concerned about trees because of the high wind factor, but in hindsight I wish I had thought more about the monument. I thought it was far enough away that my infinity focus would have caught it, but alas...

I think a big part of my problem is that I don't really know any good places to go for this kind of photography. So, a lot of this is subject to the environment I find, and I'm still testing places out. I wish I could shoot of my porch, because I have a killer view from there, but there's way too much light pollution in the immediate area.

 

[astroNikon]

Raising your ISO allows you to shorten your shutter speed.
I think your camera is good up to about ISO 800.
The d5100/d7000 was good up to about ISO 1600.

noise /air / city / light pollution one simply has to drive about 15-25 miles out of the city to see a dramatic difference. More if you can. There are "light pollution" maps out there to check out.

such as these if you really want to find dark unpolluted skies
Light pollution map
DarkSiteFinder.com - Light Pollution Map

good info in general: Light Pollution

 

[KmH]

There are no truly dark sites on the east coast.
It looks like the area around/near the Fairview Farm Golf Course near Harwinton would be about as good as it gets in your area.

Do you know about the 600 rule of landscape astrophotography, used to avoid elongated stars (star trails) because of Earth's rotation during the exposure?
Divide the effective focal length of your lens by 600 to determine the longest exposure you can make at that focal length.
18 mm x the Nikon 1.5 crop factor = 27 mm divided by 600 = 0.045 or 45 seconds as the longest exposure you can make without start trails.

You'll get your best results by going even higher with your ISO setting, but the main problem with the D5000 is how much read noise it delivers.
The D5300 is one of the hot DSLRs for astrophotography right now because it has a Sony Exmor sensor that has very little read noise.

Once the Moon gets more than about 10% lit it starts to substantially decreases landscape astrophotography contrast.
Moonrise, Moonset, and Moon Phase in New Haven

 

[KmH]

How to focus at night:
Focusing at Night: A Tutorial

Milky Way Exposure Calculator

 

[tenthumbs]

You'll have way better results if you wait until the new moon (no moon in the sky). I think your shot with the large column offers the best foreground. In spite of the camera movement, I'd say these are a definite improvement from your first set. You're on the right path.