Ursa Major - Whacha think?

[DGMPhotography]

I was just trying to minimize noise with the low ISO, yet somehow I still have a lot of noise :/

 

[JTPhotography]

Next time you try it, do some at high iso, even on up to 3200. I think you will be surprised by the results.

 

[sm4him]

I will say this is my best star shot so far. As for the lines, I put them there for creative purposes. I noticed the constellation in my photo after taking it, and decided to add the lines in post. If you Google the big dipper it will come up with all sorts of photos with those line drawn. It's for those that don't know what the constellation looks like, or what to look for, that is all. As for light pollution - I know. This was from my suburban backyard and the moon was also still out which explains why it gets brighter going right. You should have seen the original image, now that was mess, especially with white balance, but I liked how this turned out, given the cards I was dealt.

Yes, I know you drew the lines in.
I was just trying to make a little funny.
Obviously, VERY Little.

 

[Rwsphotos]

I like it lighting on the trees is nice while leaving the stars clearly visible. Looks like a night photo and not a big black hole.

 

[KmH]

Good shots.

Good enough to separate Mizar and Alcor - the 2 close stars second from the end of the handle.
They now know Mizar is a quadruple star system and Alcor is a binary star system, and both systems are gravitationally bound making it a 6 star system. First known binary star is discovered to be a triplet, quadruplet, quintuplet, sextuplet system
In reflecting telescopes with mirrors as small as 2 1/2 inches 3 stars are seen • Two of the Mizar group and Alcor.

 

[KmH]

I was just trying to minimize noise with the low ISO, yet somehow I still have a lot of noise :/

That's because of the way digital images work.

Most of the luminosity data is in the brightest stop of exposure.
The dark parts of the image have way lots less luminosity data so the signal to noise ratio (SNR ) sucks and you see more noise
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/linear_gamma.pdf

 

[TwoTwoLeft]

With constellations, sometimes it helps to pick a more prominent one with more defined edges. If it's tricky to find with your eyes, it will be even more underwhelming in a photo. Orion or Scorpio can work.

I took this one of Orion a few years back.

 

[DGMPhotography]

I was just trying to minimize noise with the low ISO, yet somehow I still have a lot of noise :/

That's because of the way digital images work.

Most of the luminosity data is in the brightest stop of exposure.
The dark parts of the image have way lots less luminosity data so the signal to noise ratio (SNR ) sucks and you see more noise
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/linear_gamma.pdf

So it is possible to get a low noise photo of the stars?

 

[KmH]

Stars? Yes.

But not the dark area between stars, unless you use a feature like Nikon's long exposure noise reduction that make a second image with the shutter curtains closed that is then used to subtract the noise in the image made with the shutter open..
If you make a 10 second exposure, the second - shutter curtain closed exposure is also 10 seconds long.

Astrophotographers cool the image sensor in their camera. Serious astrophotographers use digital cameras specifically designed with cooling systems for just that purpose.

Professional observatories use liquified gases, like liquid nitrogen to cool the image sensors they use for hours long exposures.