need some help

[togish1]

how do you know where the milky way is? i want to try to take some pix of it...


and anything good near orion? its in my sky for the winter

[Tumbl3w33ds]

I would suggest a star map, whether it be a physical one or one online. If you are in the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way is generally in a southern direction. Generally. Orion has wonderful treasures hidden in it, one of the more "popular" nebulae is within his body, and there are several open clusters around as well....Pleiades and Hyades...much more...go get you a map of the sky :)

[Nighthound]

You're standing in it. :D Just funning, couldn't resist.

In the eastern US it stripes the sky directly over head around 9 pm these nights, running north/south. Where are you located?

Plenty to shoot in the east as Orion rises including The Pleiades(M45), The Great Orion Nebula/Running Man Nebula(below the belt of Orion). I could go on but what are you shooting with? Knowing your limitations will help us make more attainable suggestions.

[togish1]

well im all new to this....and i found my star program from my telescope ive had...so now i can find objects easily...as for what im using...my xti, with the kit lens or the nifty fifty, i also have a sigma 70-200

[Adrena1in]

That's true Nighthound...in fact, pretty much everything you can see up there, star-wise, is our Milky Way. ;)

The best place to see the main Milky Way lane is in the region around the constellation Cygnus, running across and through Casseopeia. From the UK anyway.

Where are you located?

[togish1]

im from long island ny

[Adrena1in]

There are plenty of star maps and constellation maps on-line, but this might help a little.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7604/milkywaywidelabelszy6.th.jpg (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=milkywaywidelabelszy6.jpg)http://img231.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

Cygnus and Cassiopeia are two very easy constellations to spot at the moment. In England, with Cygnus directly overhead at about 7pm, and Cassiopeia due east-north-east. You're nearer the equator than me, but I'm assuming these constellations will still be very visible to you in the early evenings? There's some lovely Milky Way richness around these constellations, as you can see from my wide-angle shot above.

That's going to be one of the best ways to learn the skies to tell you the truth. Get as wide-angle a lens as you can and just shoot areas of the sky with 20 or 30-second exposures with the aperture wide open and the ISO high, to capture as much data as you can. Enhancing the contrast in Photoshop or something will reveal even more detail.

P.S. I'm not saying the above settings are the best for good images, but they'll be good for helping you find objects. My image was at 10mm as shows a lot of the sky, and with the Contrast overdone it even brings out things like the Andromeda Galaxy.

P.P.S. My Constellation lines might not be 100% accurate, but they're close enough.