So I wanna shoot the Milky Way (Timelapse?)

[virgo80]

I may be visiting Uluru (Ayers Rock) later this year and will have a great opportunity to get some dark, black sky sans light pollution. Very excited. I've been watching a lot of amazing time lapse videos of the milky way and am very inspired. I'd be happy just to get a great shot of the sky.

My setback is my equipment. I have a Canon Rebel xti and will be borrowing my friend's lens, 17-85mm. Is there any way I can get a great shot with those? Do I have any chance of being able to do time lapse? I've never shot the night sky before, I live in LA and the only stars I see are at night clubs. (wah wah) If I do have a shot at it, what settings would be recommended?

Thanks!

[gigolo]

Any DSLR with any lens is okay. I use a 60D and a plastic fantastic 50/1.8 II and it's great for stars, and I've also used the EF-S 18-135 IS.

You stop down the aperture to get as much sharpness as you can, or you let it open if you want to avoid star trails. Use ISO 100-400 for low noise.

The equipment and the settings are less important than a dark night sky.

[hollis_f]

You'd be better off with a wider, faster lens. With the 17-85 you'll want to shoot at 17mm and f4 to grab as much light as possible. For the same reason a high ISO is a good idea - especially for a timelapse where noise won't really be a problem.

If you shoot 10 second exposures then 1 hour of real time will take 360 frames. Replay that at 30 frames per second at it'll take 12 seconds to replay - so shoot for 2.5 hours for a timelapse that runs for 30 seconds.

Set the camera up on a good tripod, manually focus at infinity, manual exposure at f4, 10 seconds, ISO 800. Take a test shot. Are the stars in focus? Can you see the Milky Way in the image? Then adjust the focus and/or increase the ISO until the answer to both is yes. Then, with the camera in multi-shot mode, press the shutter release on the remote and lock it into position.