Nikon D7100 night performance, how good? (Stars, milky way etc)

[Tailgunner]

Here are a couple of shots I took practicing to shoot the milky way with my D7000. In both cases the lens is my Tokina 11-16m f/2.8. I took the first one in the front yard. There is a lot of light pollution from town but the bottom right shows the darker part of the sky.

View attachment 60059View attachment 60058

Nice,

So what kinda settings are we looking at when shooting the Heavens?

 

[bc_steve]

first one:
11mm
f/2.8
30 seconds
ISO 2000

second one:
11mm
f/2.8
30 seconds
ISO 4000

Both were edited a bit, curves mostly. And noise reduction. I also used the in-camera long exposure noise reduction.

 

[Tailgunner]

first one:
11mm
f/2.8
30 seconds
ISO 2000

second one:
11mm
f/2.8
30 seconds
ISO 4000

Both were edited a bit, curves mostly. And noise reduction. I also used the in-camera long exposure noise reduction.

Thanks,

I was trying some astrophotography out last night on a boys scout camp out but the only decent lens I brought was my nifty fifty. It did pretty good but nothing as good as the above photos. The shots are sharp but I don't have any of the cosmic dust etc. They look more like a snap shot. I think the highest I had my ISO was 800 and the shutter around 15-20 sec. So I'm going to try these settings out next time.

 

[bc_steve]

with your 50mm you might not be able to get away with a shutter speed as long as 30s. a longer lens will show the stars streaking in a shorter exposure than a wide lens.

at least you will have the ability to go down to 1.8 though